CYBERJAYA: The Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) is carrying out operations as usual despite reports that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad plans to abolish it.
Its CEO Ashran Gazi said the agency had checked with the finance ministry and was told that nothing had changed.
“Even after May 9, it was business as usual and nothing has changed in regards to this. We were told to run our programmes as usual, and that is what we are doing today,” he told reporters at the launch of the MaGIC Global Accelerator Programme officiated by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today.
Ashran said the agency, which has 70 staff, was currently engaging with 900 local startup companies and did not require additional grants from the government to run its programmes.
“On average, our allocation from the government is RM50 million annually. Since 2014, about RM197 million has been spent,” he said.