Thank you very much to the Chairman of the board Tan Sri Aseh, to Professor Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, President and founder, of the University, and to all the senior members of the faculties, senior members of management, to my colleagues from the Ministry and, most importantly, to the students from all over the world.

I know you have 11 campuses now, in 7 countries, and I understand you have students from 140 countries. Congratulations to you and especially for those of you who have come from all over the world, welcome to Malaysia. I understand that about nine thousand are here at this campus and the rest of the 30,000 are in various campuses overseas.

I have seen from the earlier presentation that I received, it’s truly a very multiracial campus.. Here in Malaysia, we are talking about 1Malaysia. I think you can actually call yourselves nothing less than “One World University of Limkokwing” because here we have students  from so many countries studying in this one place.

Tan Sri Limkokwing, Tan Sri Aseh and senior faculty members and management, it’s my pleasure to be here on this very special occasion. I did say to both Tan Sri Aseh and Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing that I had very much wanted to be here very much earlier, but I think it is more beautiful to come here after knowing fully what you are doing and I’ve already identified areas in which we can work together. I have just come from Penang, so I did not wear my black suit otherwise I would feel more at home.

I went to Penang for a programme with my agency, SIRIM. Penang is a very hot island so I thought I had better wear a beige suite. Anyway, I am happy to be here. Your official colours are black and gold and I think that says lots of things. We had an extended look at the Guli-Guli exhibition and various galleries that you have, Tan Sri.  After that, we went through an intensive briefing, in terms of where you are, what you are specialising in and your roadmaps for the future. We also had a good overview of various proposals and ideas that Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing had in mind, especially in possible areas for working together; that means within science, technology and innovation and at the same time of course, within government as a whole.

I can say that Lim Kok Wing is an institution by himself and therefore it follows that the University has not only become an institution in this country but also the whole world over.  In fact, I think on this special occasion I would like to bestow a title for Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing as the “Father of Innovation in Creative Education” in Malaysia and in the region. Coming from MOSTI, the country’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Technology, I truly think that title is very deserved. Father of Innovation in Creative Education, in Malaysia, in the region and, in fact, globally. I think his record speaks for itself.

Tan Sri, you have had a long association with the government; you started in 1991 with just 200 students.  Today, you are in 11 campuses, in 7 countries, with 30,000 students from 140 countries. This is in addition to people who are studying not on your campuses, but also online. That’s a huge number.

The subject of creativity and innovation is, of course, a subject that is so crucial to Malaysia. I was trained as a scientist, with a background as Bachelor of Agricultural Science, PhD in Agriculture Economics, dealing with ICT, doing model building, metrics modelling. That was back in 1994 in Melbourne. I came in, having spent two years at Universiti Pertanian (now known as UPM) as a lecturer and before I finished the term, I saw an advertisement from ISIS Malaysia, the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, founded by the late Tan Sri Nordin Sopie, a close friend of Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing and many of us here.

The advertisement header was very interesting and hit the heart of what the institution is doing. The header was very simple - he was inviting researchers and senior researchers to join the institute. It’s now a very famous Institute - known worldwide, known in Asian Studies, International Relations and other policy areas. It said “Are you a creative thinker?” and it said “If you are a creative thinker and you want to join this Institute, ISIS Malaysia, write in 500 words why you want to join this Institute.” That was very different from the average job advertisement.  When I went for the interview with a PhD under my belt, he looked at my 360 pages thesis and scanning through, he said “Max, congratulations, you write very well as an academician, as a scientist and as an economist. But in this place, he says, a PhD doesn’t mean much to this institution. We are looking for creative people who think ahead, who bring out fresh ideas and want to become a think tank for the government. I came in for the interview in 1984, that was 25 years ago.

This college has now grown into a University; it has institutionalised the whole field of creative thinking and the whole field of innovation. And today, you are here, the students from overseas because, I believe, of the integrity of the institution, the university and the various thinking that Tan Sri has formalised. I also noticed just now, if my counting is right, about 14 Bachelors Degrees, Diploma programmes and 8 Masters Programmes. I understand that you are also in the process of registering for PhD programmes -  I hope you do succeed because you have what it takes to be an institution of higher learning in this very specialised field.

Ladies and gentlemen, as I have said earlier, innovation and creativity are very crucial in the agenda of the Malaysian government. When the new Prime Minister was sworn in just about 4 months ago, almost every other day you will hear him in major speeches talking about innovation and creativity. As I remember, he told me, that he was going to announce that I would be returning back to the Ministry of Science and Technology. He said “Max, I am returning you back to MOSTI because innovation is central to my agenda” and I think this is the way MOSTI and Limkokwing University can work together, not only to institutionalise much of the thinking; and many of the programmes based on creativity and innovation can be formalised in a vehicle to assist the government under Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to achieve his goal in making Malaysia an innovation-driven economy.

The national economy has undergone enormous transformation from the 1960’s when we were talking about productivity issues and import substitution versus export diversification because it was a resource-based economy. Then we moved on to first-level industrialisation. So we talked about the industrial master plan, already in its third phase, going through much of that phase and taking Malaysia to be the number 1 country in the field of electronics. We moved on from that. For the last nine years, we have been talking about the knowledge-driven economy, MDeC and the whole MSC initiative which were intended to drive transformation. The next phase is, as the Prime Minister said, when we move on to the innovation-driven economy which we can expect to mature in 2020.

Ladies and gentlemen, young scholars, you come from the African continent, Europe and South America.  I was in Uganda about 5 weeks ago with the Deputy Prime Minister attending the South African Dialogue, which is the South African version of our own Langkawi Dialogue. You are here because you are the cream of your country and you are attracted to the courses being offered by the University, because you know they are going to be relevant to your industry and relevant to the country that you come from. But I can say that in many of the African countries you come from , are just starting on the industrial phase, maximising the resource-based economy and moving to the industrialisation path. Of course, in Malaysia we have passed that, we are strengthening our industrial base and especially strengthening our knowledge base in the knowledge-driven economy but we are now shifting into a new economy - that is, the innovation-driven economy.

When you come out for this university, the skills that you have, having trained in creative thinking, innovation and creativity, you are going to be a real asset to your country. It is here that Limkokwing University plays a very crucial role in the nation-building of Malaysia and in the nation-building of many countries that you come from.

I just want to say that the Ministry has also proposed to the government and government has agreed that next year will be the “Year of Innovation and Creativity 2010”. This year was the European Year of Creativity. I attended a programme earlier this year in Queensland, Australia which also declared a Year of Creativity 2009. Of course, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing has some views on that and I will take account on them, suggesting that we start a Year of Creativity and then several years later gradually mature to a Year of Innovation onwards to a Year of Creative Innovation.  We will reflect on that, but next year will be a special year for creativity and innovation, of course.

I certainly want to call the University to play a key role with us, not only in terms of participation in the programme but also in the formulation of the programme. For that purpose actually, we have launched a portal, launched by the Prime Minister two months ago, what we call “My Ideas Portal” and I am glad to see that your Ideas Bank here has almost the same title. We say “One Malaysia, One Million Ideas” and what we have done is to set up a national portal to be launched in various phases; the next will be launched within the education sector. We want Malaysians, especially young people, to suggest ideas, to put out ideas on how we should run this country and at the same time how we should celebrate the year of creativity and innovation next year. Please visit the portal, its address is very simple, www.myideas.my. You can suggest as many ideas as you want. We will reward those people whose ideas have been taken and implemented. If it’s a technical idea, we will get the scientists to look at it and if it is developed further, we will pass the idea back to you.  So do visit the portal

Ladies and gentlemen, I think the best time in my life was when I was still a student. Sometimes we wish that we could rewind the clock and think of the days that we were in the University. We did not have at that time a university that specialises in creativity and innovation. In those days, innovation was just a topic under Economics as a three-unit programme. When we talked about research methodology there was a little bit that we were taught about creativity. Although the psychologists would spend a little more time. But today, you have an institution like this, almost full-time spearheading innovation in education, and at the same time developing creative minds in various facets of industry. Whether it be Media, or Arts, or in Technology; whether it be in Process, or in concept and so forth. You are indeed in a very privileged position to be in this institution.

I think my last words would be to encourage you to make full use of your time whilst you are here; especially for the foreign students, there are so many things to learn from Malaysia, from interacting amongst students from 140 countries. I know there are exchange programmes taking place, teaching diversity. As I said, Malaysia talks about 1Malaysia and to Limkokwing, you can talk about One World University. One global University whereby you can interact and do all of these things. I trust that you have a good time here in Malaysia, and I encourage students or lecturers to visit any of our agencies under MOSTI, the Ministry of Science and Technology, at any time. I have 28 agencies under the Ministry from the hard core science of Meteorology, Nuclear, Chemistry, Aerospace to the ICT-class cluster of MDeC, of MIMOS, of Cyber Security, of the Domain Registrar and few more that may be relevant to you. We also have Bio Informatics, the merging of ICT and Biotechnology, which can be visited at Technology Park, Malaysia.

Ladies and gentlemen, once again it is my privilege to be here. Tan Sri did mention to me about the Malaysia Empowerment Centre of Innovation that has been launched and I want to give an undertaking that MOSTI will be very happy to join this programme. If there is some opportunity for funding that will be relevant to our funding priorities, I will  be very happy also to contribute in terms of developing the Centre. I did say earlier in our interaction, in our briefing with Tan Sri and the senior officers of the University, that we are at the moment studying the proposal to set up what would be called the National Innovation Centre. Preliminary ideas being discussed with the private sector and academia and also with the researchers on the ground, include the base idea to perhaps develop what we call a network of innovation centres, attached to institutions of higher learning. It will be championed by MOSTI, but we don’t want it to be MOSTI; we don’t want it to be part of any government department.  We believe that the innovation centre will only thrive and create fresh ideas when there is a stream of creativity filtering into the centre. And, of course, the other half of the job is the commercialisation of the ideas and contributing to wealth creation and improving societal well being. We are studying the possibilities identifying six centres, four in West Malaysian higher learning institutions , one in Sabah and one in Sarawak. And I had in my mind already, even though we are not going in to the process of creative selection, that I believe Limkokwing University will be one contender for a national innovation centre because you have proved to be a centre of your own and you can play a leading role in this matter.

Congratulation for your contributions. I finish with one statement that would describe Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, where he started and where he is today. A statement that says “Why do something which so many people are doing, when there are so many things that nobody is doing?”

I repeat it for the young people, why do something which so many people are doing, when there are so many things that nobody is doing? And that is actually the call for creativity, the call for innovation - as we produce students from this University, from Malaysia, to become innovative thinkers and train people to fit into our own resource development and to drive the creative industry in various forms in this country. And I hope the foreign students, as you go home to your own countries, you will also become not only the trained people of your country but if creativity is the mother of innovation then may you be the offspring of innovation, coming from Limkokwing and may you become the innovators and therefore the superstars of the country that you come from. May God bless you and all the very best and congratulations.