Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said currently, R&D in Asean countries remained as a low-paying industry despite being a key game-changer in determining the region’s position in the value chain.
He said Malaysia spent about 1.13 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on R&D and the salary of researchers remained in the lower-income bracket.
“According to Adecco (a staffing firm), a Scientific Clinical Research Manager with more than four years’ experience gets a maximum of RM7,000 per month, compared with an accountant at RM10,000, and front office bankers earning up to RM15,000.
“The remuneration is a key symbol of how we are not appreciating these key movers of innovation as they should be,” he added when delivering his keynote address at the Kyoto Asean Forum 2016 here today.
Meanwhile, Khairy said it was imperative that the Asean community build a generation of youths who were inquisitive, rational and innovative.
He said it must be embedded in the very culture of Asean, where innovative capacity was being looked as a key advantage, not breaking norms.
“Asean’s next generational engine must embrace innovation as part of its culture.”
The forum is aimed at fostering talented and ambitious students and researchers in Japan and Asean to guide them into the global society to realise their full potential.