By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Oct 14: The Sarawak government is open to offering scholarship to civil servants who are interested in furthering their studies on Intellectual Property (IP) rights.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said he had requested the State Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) to send its lawyers for further education on IP rights as well as cybersecurity for Masters as well as PHD programmes.
“I am not saying that (the scholarship is) only (offered to) AGC, but if there is an inclination of civil servants who are interested in this new discipline, the government will sponsor your scholarship,” he said when officiating the Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Convention Awards (SCSICA) 2021 presentation ceremony and Sarawak Civil Service Innovation Month 2021 closing ceremony held at State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex today.
Abang Johari explained that IP rights is a very important component of research and development (R&D) because if many people are able to exploit, or otherwise benefit from research done by others, then the total or social return to research may be higher on average than the private return to those who bear the costs and risks of innovation.
As a result, he said, market forces will lead to underinvestment in R&D from society’s perspective, providing a rationale for government intervention.
“To reduce these market failures, governments invest on R&D through public funding and supporting the private sector with incentives for undertaking R&D. Governments also can support pilot programmes that can reduce not only the level of technical risk but also other commercial and financial risks as well.
“A large volume of studies agrees that in certain extent, increasing public R&D investment builds innovation resources, essential for private sectors’ further application, and the social or economywide returns from public R&D are usually much higher than the private R&D returns to industry, especially in knowledge-intensive industries.
“At the same time, the higher level of public R&D expenditure will eventually induce more private R&D investment,” he added. — DayakDaily
