A quick look at the Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia’s (TeAM) major events in 2009 would give a good indication of some of the issues that TeAM was involved in for the betterment of the industry.
TeAM has been actively participating in several government initiatives and lobbying the authorities for improvements to the environment — for the economy in general and technopreneurs in particular — and the successful launch of the Cradle Seed Fund, “CIP 500”, which is one of our success stories.

We fully supported Cradle Fund’s proposal for the seed fund and actively participated by putting forth our proposals for the seed fund, which we believe is necessary to fill the funding gap in the market. With CIP 500, Cradle now offers a more complete funding ecosystem from pre-seed to seed for technopreneurs. We are confident that this will be a real success story for Cradle and technopreneurs as it will spur greater commercialisation of the many great ideas in the market.

We have also contributed to the development of innovative SMEs (i-SMEs) under SME Corporation, lobbied for the adoption of online and Web2.0 marketing under the Matrade promotion grants and also contributed to the Securities Commission’s revamp of the Mesdaq Market, which is now known as the ACE Market. We anticipate that the new ACE Market, which was launched in May 2009, will provide technopreneurs and investors with a more vibrant and active market for listings and fundraising. We also organised a briefing event for technopreneurs on the ACE Market, which was held on June 11, 2009.

TeAM has also been conducting capability development programmes for technopreneurs jointly with the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) and Proficeo, an entrepreneurial training and coaching organisation. To date, we have trained and coached more than 200 technopreneurs. This programme will continue in 2010 and also be conducted for Cradle Fund recipients.

In October 2009, TeAM was appointed a member of the National Innovation Council chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. It was truly an honour for TeAM as an industry organisation to receive this recognition and be able to contribute at national level.
Meanwhile, at the Innotech event organised by MDeC on Nov 17, TeAM helped organise a talk on Going Global to the US market. The event was part of a project that TeAM had been working on for the last two years to facilitate a group of technopreneurs to actually venture into Silicon Valley, California, to access the US market.

The last major activity by TeAM was entitled Jumpstart Your Business with Grant, which focused on the newly launched CIP 500 commercialisation grant by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd. It is indeed a great way to end the year and to see the fruits of seven years of lobbying by past and current TeAM councils.

Of course, one last update with regard to TeAM for 2009 is the opening of its secretariat office at Plug & Play on Level 7, The Gardens South Tower in Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur. It is hoped that the place will be a hive of activity, with technopreneurs and other stakeholders of the industry, especially venture capitalists, coming together regularly.
Moving on to 2010, TeAM’s focus will be on the following:

Market access to local and global markets
One of the big issues for technoprenuers is the ability to sustain and grow their business. This can only happen if they are able to continually secure the required sales and expand their reach to more customers. The ability to have the right market access either locally or abroad, especially for locally bred technologies, will be critical for long-term sustainability.

From a local market perspective, it is critical to hammer home the message that Made-in-Malaysia products are as good as foreign ones and that SMEs need to adopt technology to improve business processes and be more competitive. TeAM is in the midst of working out a programme that hopefully can help facilitate more adoption of local ICT products.
On going global, there is an ongoing project in which we hope to assist 20 companies to set up base in Silicon Valley to access the US market. The idea is to reduce cost and risks by sharing resources as well as leveraging peer support and networking.

TeAM’s second book on women technopreneurs
Another big item on our agenda is the launch of our second book, titled Women on Top: Women Technopreneurs Who Changed the Malaysian Landscape. The book will provide real-life experiences and interesting insights into how 21 women technopreneurs started and sustained their business. The hope is that the book can be used as an inspiration for potential and current technopreneurs, especially those still in the early stage of business and of course, perhaps as a reference text for students in technopreneurship courses in universities and colleges as well as academicians to further strengthen their practical knowledge. What is also critical is that we would like to show that it is possible for women to succeed in a predominantly male world.

Professional development and capacity building
Besides the programmes the with MDeC and Cradle, various programmes are being planned and TeAM hopes to announce these soon.

Networking
Businesses leverage partnerships and contacts. TeAM will continue to host various networking events, such as Lunch Around, Learn Around, for a different group of technopreneurs to meet up over a period of time so that they get to know each other well enough for potential collaboration.

Another is Breakfast with the CEO, where TeAM will get technopreneurs to have breakfast with the CEOs of GLCs and MNCs. Lastly, TeAM will be launching its Third Thursday networking event next year at Plug & Play.
And we have a wish list for 2010.

•     We would like to see more support and ser­vices from the commercial banks to support ICT companies. Currently, project financing for ICT is only available from Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd and there is a need for more providers looking at smaller-scale financing for ICT projects.
•     We would like to see clear policies on how the government intends to create a high-income, high-value-added economy, which should include better educational programmes and a revamped education system that focuses on critical thinking, creativity and innovation.
•     We encourage the government to open up the economy to more competition, especially among suitably qualified local companies based on meritocracy and greater transparency in the awarding of government contracts.
•     We would welcome a policy where government agencies and the GLCs are encouraged to buy local technology products and ser­vices when they are equivalent to foreign products.
•     Finally, we would like to see the agencies tasked with growing the technology industry being given greater autonomy and powers and these include MDeC and BiotechCorp. As they have built up significant expertise and knowledge in these industries, they should be the ones to drive a high-income, high-value-added economy.

Koh Lee Ching is TeAM president and founder of Calms Technologies Sdn Bhd, which enables companies to implement multi-application smart card solutions. She also launched Automated Design Xpress Sdn Bhd, which develops solutions for engineering work flow and process automation, targeted at the manufacturing industry. Her latest venture is a bio-pesticide business She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This article appeared in netv@lue2.0, the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue Dec 28 - Jan 10 2010