STRONG links with biotech intensive countries can help Malaysia’s BioValley initiative become a major biotech centre for the region, says one of Australia’s experts on technology parks.

This approach will eventually pay back in dividends and hopefully you will get other countries encouraging their start-ups to form joint collaborative ventures.

"All these things stimulate growth and critical mass and develop activity," said Australian Technology Park Innovations Pty Ltd (ATPi) chief executive officer Dr Mark Bradley.

In an e-mail reply to Business Times, the Sydney-based Bradley said alliances can be formed between BioValley and other countries in the region through a cluster concept.

"Malaysia doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel on biotech. Instead, form alliances and working relationships within a pan Asian cluster concept in mind," he said.

He said Australia itself is looking for tie-ups with other countries, including Malaysia.

When fully operational in 2009, BioValley Malaysia will comprise research, commercial, education, recreation and residential facilities on an 800ha site close to the Multimedia Super Corridor.

The RM2 million BioValley, the first phase to be completed in 2006, will house biotechnology activities and bio-processes, as well as coordinate and promote the commercialisation of research findings.

It has so far attracted interest from several biotech-related companies to operate there.

"For many years Australia tried to go it alone. It learnt that alliances are critical and now that’s all we ever hear, both locally and internationally," Bradley said. 

He said BioValley Malaysia can fit the cluster model if it develops critical mass within the Valley and around it. 

"A true cluster has the presence of the whole food chain; from start-ups, universities, established companies, large multinationals, service providers, suppliers and venture capitalists," he added.

Bradley defined biocluster as a geographic concentration of interconnected companies, specialised suppliers and service providers, as well as academic and medical research institutions; which compete and also cooperate at the same time.

He said bioclusters exist in Germany (Berlin/Brandenburg/Munich/Martinsried), England (Cambridge) and the US (Boston), which hold groupings of 100 or more commercial biotech companies in close geographical proximity.

Bradley also stressed that the most significant issue the Malaysian biotech sector faces in attracting foreign companies and investment in the biotech sector is the country’s intellectual property (IP) laws.

He said IP laws in Malaysia need to be adjusted to encourage entrepreneurial activity in the country, co-ownership, or assignment of IP from universities to inventors and entrepreneurs.

"At the moment, I understand this is less than fluid. IP underpins almost all BioBusiness development and we just cannot escape this," he said.

ATPi, meanwhile, is a technology business accelerator that houses companies in biotech, information communication technology and electronics technologies.

Developed in 1995, ATPi is owned by four Australian universities - the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University.