cluster life cycle

20 Tech MoniTor • Jul-Aug 2011

Kamarulzaman Ab. AzizFaculty of Management, Multimedia University, Persiaran Multimedia, 63100 cyberjaya, Malaysia

Tel: +60-3-83125686; Fax: +60-3-83125590 e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

clusters is a concept made popular by Michael Porter through his cluster Diamond Framework as a manage-ment tool for creating and sustaining competitive advantage (Porter, 1990). The cluster concept argues for a syn-ergy created by geographically linked actors leading to enhanced productivity and innovativeness which is attractive to both firm managers and governments.

There is no single unified definition existed that can be adopted. however, it can be seen that there are groups of definitions that share similarities — spatial-based, industrial sector-based, and measured variables-based defi-nitions. Furthermore, it can be seen that there are a number of recurring or common themes — link to perform-ance, geographical concentration and/or proximity, cluster actors, and linkages and interrelationships — which might be suggesting towards a convergence among the experts on how clusters are being viewed (Almeida and Kogut, 1997; Audretsch and Feldman, 1996a, 1996b; cooper and Folta, 2000; enright, 1996; Feldman, 2001; Feldman and Francis, 2003, 2004; Feldman et al., 2005; Feser, 1998; Maggioni, 2002; Porter, 1998; Prevezer, 1997; roelandt and den hertog, 1999; rosenfeld, 1997; Simmie and Sennett, 1999; Van der Berg, Braun and van Winden, 2001).

The convergence seems to centre on the ideas that clusters are sets of actors that gravitate around a particular location, i.e. geographically proximate, where knowledge-intensive activities

occur in a knowledge-rich environ-ment and ultimately impacts the larger economy through enhanced productiv-ity, innovativeness and competitiveness of the cluster’s constituents.

Cluster life cycle There are a number of models that have been proposed to represent the life cycles of clusters. The Department of Trade and industries (DTi) proposed a four stages cyclical model — embryonic clusters, established clusters, mature clusters, and declining clusters (DTi, 2005). At each stage, different sets of interventions are suitable or needed. in embryonic clusters, government and intermediary brokers can be important in encouraging collaboration and act-ing as information brokers, a role that may not be needed at a later stage. For mature or declining clusters, it is essential to encourage openness and innovation to prevent regional lock-in. Thus, this can promote the creation of new industries. Furthermore, certain strategic intervention is needed at every stage of the life cycle but at dif-ferent intensities and implementation method.

Williams (2005) reported a project funded by the canadian Social Sci-ences and humanities research council that examines the impact and importance of a cluster-driven inno-vation in canada. The study investi-gated how local networks of firms and supporting infrastructure of institu-tions, business and people in commu-nities across canada interact to spark economic growth. The project defines

Abstractchanges in technology, political and social frameworks as well as the impacts of globalisation have put pressure on countries to be-come more competitive. one strat-egy for strengthening a nation’s competitiveness is by enhancing the domestic innovation system. This can be done via the creation of clusters. clusters is a concept made popular by Michael Porter through his cluster Diamond Framework as a management tool for creating and sustaining competitive advantage (Porter, 1990). The cluster concept argues for a synergy created by ge-ographically linked actors leading to enhanced productivity and innova-tiveness which is attractive to both firm managers and governments. These clusters, be they naturally or artificially conceived hold the promise of becoming the economic weapons of a country. This paper explores the question of cluster life cycles. This was done through a case study of the Malaysian policy-driven cluster initiative, namely, the Multimedia Super corridor.

Cluster life CyClea Case study of the multimedia super Corridor

Tech MoniTor • Jul-Aug 2011 21

Cluster life cycle: a case study of the Multimedia Super Corridor

cluster life cycle using the ‘S’ curve with the four stages being ‘latent’, ‘develop-ing’, ‘established’ and ‘transformational’.

Andersson et al.’s (2004) discus-sion on the process of ‘clustering’ can help provide further insights to the life cycle of clusters. The standard cluster-ing process is seen as a model of four phases that ran parallel to each other once each phase is reached. The four phases are (i) creating trust or in other words building social capital, (ii) forming linkages (as linkages develop, visions will also be formulated), (iii) formulating vision or strategic direction(s) — when the linkages are solidified, a collective vision and strategic aim will be forged, and (iv) undertaking action — actions to realise the vision and aim will be taken as well as action to strengthen the clus-ter (common types of actions include those for improving, technology devel-opment, start-ups formation and firm growth, networking among the actors, the market factors cluster dynamics, etc.). There should be a constant feed-back loop between the third and fourth phases as the cluster develops. how-ever, a closer look at the clustering proc-ess of numerous clusters around the globe have led them, Andersson et al.’s (2004), to further define the clustering process into three categories, namely, engineered, organic and re-engineered.

To conclude, four key points can be deduced from this discussion on cluster life cycles:

• The stage before the emergence of a cluster is important. Understanding this stage will enable us to identify the basic building blocks that made the cluster possible. Also study of this stage will highlight what spurs the creation/formation/emergence of the cluster, for example, policy ac-tions and natural resources.

• The early stage of clustering is criti-cal as recognition of the signs can help trigger policy efforts that can strengthen the process and quicken the formation of the critical mass.

• if the early stages have been suc-cessful, there would be a full fledge

cluster. At this stage is when the dynamics are going at full cylinders and the economic impacts start to be significant.

• After passing of time, due to indus-try/technology/product life cycles as well as resources nearing/reaching physical and/or natural limits, the cluster will show signs of maturity. This is a crucial point as the pos-sibility for the next progression in-cludes levelling off of performance (stagnant), decline and failure, or rehashing/reinvent itself and start the cycle all over again.

Methodologycase study methodology usage can be traced back to the early 1900s when it was popularly used by the University of chicago, Department of Sociology (Tellis, 1997). Zonabend (1992) stated that case study is done by giving special attention to completeness in observa-tion, reconstruction and analysis of the cases under study. case study is done in a way that incorporates the views of the ‘actors’ in the case under study. A case study is a research strategy used when attempting to understand com-plex organisation problems; in essence allowing one to focus on something which is sufficiently manageable and can be understood in all its complexity (Moore, 1987). Yin (1994) also high-lighted that the reasons for conduct-ing case studies includes explaining linkages between causes and effects, to describe a phenomenon in its own context, to explore an issue or a ques-tion, etc. Triangulation for this study is achieved via methodological triangu-lation where multiple sources of data are used. This is done via the usage of several common types of case study sources of evidence as recognised by Stake (1995) and Yin (1994), namely, documents, archival records, inter-views, direct observation and partici-pant observation.

Research FrameworkThe research framework developed for this study is an enhancement of the vari-

ous cluster life cycle models reviewed. The model has six stages: anteced-ence, embryonic cluster, developing cluster, mature cluster, declining cluster, and transformation.

• Antecedence: it is the early aspect that shows or helps to provide the impetus for clustering. it could be or-ganic development (what was hap-pening on the ground were showing natural tendencies for clustering) or engineered (decisions to cluster were made to derive the benefits and led through policy implementations).

• Embryonic cluster: The cluster shows signs of agglomeration economies and the actors are benefiting from it as well as beginning to actively form linkages and networks.

• Developing cluster: critical mass has been reached and linkages are active within the cluster as well as links with external parties are being developed.

• Mature cluster: The cluster has peak-ed and its key denominator industry or technology has matured. Growth and performance are showing a marked slowdown.

• Declining cluster: The cluster has peaked and starting to experience slowdown in growth and perform-ance. Such cluster has trouble finding new focus to generate new growth and to attract new entrants to reenergise the cluster mix. Fail-ure to formulate new strategy means that eventually the agglomeration will disintegrate with actors finding new emerging clusters or locations providing them better economies of scale. A cluster that manages to identify ways and methods that can help it reenergise itself has a possi-bility of taking itself out of this stage into the ‘Transformation’ stage.

• Transformation: it is when the ma-ture cluster is showing signs of new growth. This could involve most of the actors or grouping around several new growth factors — new entrants to the cluster, new technology, new



market segment, new methods of de-livery of goods, etc. The locus for new growth could be identified through policy intervention, r&D activities (cluster-based or individual in-house investments leading to spillovers) or the impacts of major new entrants, etc. Some actors might leave but the critical mass threshold is main-tained (with addition of new firms). The cluster is re-entering the early stages of its life cycle — depending on how different the new focus is, will determine at which stage the cluster will re-enter the life cycle.

Multimedia Super Corridor Malaysia is confronted with the advent of globalisation and liberalisation chal-lenges on its way to become a developed nation. To cope with these challenges, Malaysia has embarked to increase its innovative capacities in order to

experience higher economic growth. The Multimedia Super corridor (MSc)1 as a policy-driven cluster-oriented initia-tive is established to help the country on its transition effort from an industrial society to a post-industrial one.

Malaysia’s efforts towards becom-ing a knowledge-based economy have been laid out in the mid-1990s through initiatives under the Third outline Perspective Plan (oPP3)2, Seventh Malaysia Plan3 and eighth Malaysia Plan4. information and communication Technology (icT) had been identified as the key enabler towards achieving this vision. MSc is one of the major efforts in this regard. it is positioned to provide means for sustainable and rapid growth of the icT sector in Malaysia. concep-tualised in 1996, MSc is a government designated zone, includes an area of approximately 15 × 50 km2 which stretches from the Petronas Twin Tow-ers to the Kuala Lumpur international Airport (KLiA) and includes the towns of Putrajaya and cyberjaya (Figure 1).

MSc is to be a catalyst for encour-aging innovation and dynamic local businesses. ‘in the effort to realise the

vision, seven “Flagship Applications” have been perceived to be fundamental’ (Ab. Aziz et al., 2002, p. 5).

The Multimedia Development cor-poration (MDec)5 based in cyberjaya is the organisation mandated by the government to oversee the develop-ment of the MSc Malaysia. MDec is incorporated under the companies Act of Malaysia, owned and funded by the Malaysian government. MDec facilitates applications by multinational and local companies to locate to MSc Malaysia. it globally markets the MSc Malaysia, shapes MSc Malaysia-specific laws, policies and practices by advising Malaysian Government. MDec is also responsible for the MSc Malaysia’s information infrastructure and urban development.

The implementation plan of the MSc project has three phases (Figure 1). The first phase included the creation of the corridor, cyberjaya as the centre of the MSc, and Putrajaya as the new government administrative centre.

in order to attract industries to the corridor, MSc Malaysia pledges a bill of guarantees which promises several incentives (Table 1).

To accelerate the realisation of Vision 2020 (to transform Malaysia into a knowledge based society) via the MSc, the ‘flagship applications’ play the lead role. These applications were engineered to jumpstart the MSc Malaysia initiative and create a hub for innovative developers and users of multimedia technology. consortia of both local and foreign companies work with various government agencies to enhance the socio-economic develop-ment of Malaysia. The flagship applica-tions are: electronic government (eG), Smart card (MyKad), Smart school, Tel-ehealth, r&D clusters and e-business.

These flagship applications are ide-ntified as primary areas of multimedia applications. Between December 1996 and June 1997, government-private sector collaborative teams formulated proposals for each flagship applica-tion. These close partnerships between

Increase usage and adoption of

innovative domestic ICTproducts and

services

Roll out of MSCMalaysia to the

rest of thecountry andenhancing

local ICT industry

Accelerate growth of MSC Malaysia as a Global ICT Hub andreview incentives toencourage R&D andattract greater MNC

presence

MSC Malaysia

MSC Malaysia

Penang-Kulim

East

Sabah

SouthMSC Malaysia

Sarawak

National Hub

Successfully createMSC Malaysia

Grow MSC Malaysia intoa global ICT hub

Transform Malaysia intoa knowledge society

All of MalaysiaWeb of Corridors1 Corridor

Phase 1 2003 20202010 Phase 3Next Leap1996

Extending MSC Malaysia benefits to the wider community

Fig. 1. MSC Malaysia roll out plan

1 http://www.mscmalaysia.my/topic/12066955968788

2 http://www.epu.gov.my/third3 http://www.epu.gov.my/seventhmalaysiaplan4 http://www.epu.gov.my/eightmalaysiaplan5 http://www.mdec.my/



governmental agencies and with lead-ing international and Malaysian mul-timedia companies had been formed to ensure the concepts developed were clarified and each comes with detailed implementation plans. The implementation plans have been put into action since July 1997. however, due to the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis, the ultimate initial roll out of the projects, was eventually carried out in the year 2000.

Driving the development of the flag-ship applications were government ministries and agencies that report directly to the MSc implementation council, chaired by the prime minister of Malaysia and his deputy. The MDec monitors the development and is respon-sible for the overall management of the MSc. every flagship is hoped to result in a hot bed of innovative ideas through enhanced interaction among the gov-ernment, people and business com-munity. every year MDec carry out the MSc impact Survey in order to gauge MSc’s progress. The surveys had been tracking MSc performance measures since 1997. however, the survey itself had been through a number of changes, resulting in variations to the performance measures reported each year. The last major revamp of the survey was done in 2007 as a result of the internal audit of the survey process conducted in 2006 by the consulting group ernst and Young. The impact survey reports of 2007 and 2008 formats were more consistent as compared to the variations seen in the reports of the earlier years. The survey reports on four main aspects: (i) financial performance, (ii) human resource, (iii) intellectual property and (iv) key chal-lenges and directions. however, the report for 2008, other than the updated figures of the MSc status companies, the other reported measures used data from 2007. A number of measures that were reported by most of the surveys till 2008 have been identified and the data recorded in Table 2 (as of 30 April 2011, the 2008 MSc impact Survey was the

most current impact survey report avail-able). Data on business creation based on the recipients of the MSc Techno-preneur Pre-Seed Fund had also been added to the table.

The MSC life cycleover the years since its launch (1996–2009), there had been a number of focus areas/projects announced in relation to the MSc designed to keep the momen-tum going. Arguably the projects were also in part designed to keep the MSc relevant and not written off by the media. When launched in 1996, MSc focused on icT, more specifically on software and hardware development. however, by 1999 there were already grumblings from various quarters questioning the implementation and performance of the project (Matthews, 2000a), which was around the same time the announce-ment for the e-Village was made.

The MSC Malaysia E-VillageThe e-Village project was designed to copy california’s Silicon Valley and hol-lywood combo in the MSc. A large site south of cyberjaya, near the town of Dengkil, was to be the site for Malaysia’s own ‘holly’ or ‘bollywood’. The reported size of the area varied from 200 hec-tare (Matthews, 1999a) to 480 hectare (Matthews,1999b; and http://www.mail-archive.com). one report stated

that the project would amount to 3 bil-lion ringgit over a 7 year period and be managed by entertainment Village (M) Sdn. Bhd. a Malaysia — UK firm6. it was also announced that a major tenant of the village would be another Malaysia — UK multinational, Datuk Keramat holdings (DKh). DKh was going to build a 60 million dollars studio as part of the first phase of the e-Village project (Matthews, 1999a).

in MDec, a new division was cre-ated, the creative Multimedia cluster. The vision was the MSc would be home to movie studios, theme parks, resorts, animation labs, creative schools, etc. To jumpstart the project, MDec actively promoted Malaysia as a film location around the globe. They managed to secure two hollywood productions, ‘Anna and the King’ and ‘entrapment’. MDec did it by securing the produc-tions blanket tax waiver for the casts and crew, helping them with visa proc-esses, custom clearance, security and even extras for the various scenes. The projects, however, took place before construction of the e-Village was com-pleted and done in locations outside the MSc. Furthermore, the site chosen for the e-Village was known neither for its natural beauty nor as a tourist attraction. not long after the celebrations announc-ing the project ended, it was announced that DKh’s status as anchor tenant was

i. World-class physical and information infrastructure. ii. Unrestricted employment of knowledge workers. iii. Freedom of ownership. iv. Freedom of sourcing capital globally for MSc infrastructure and borrow-

ing funds. v. competitive financing incentives including no income tax, an investment

tax allowance for up to 10 years and no duties on import of multimedia equipment.

vi. regional leader in iP protection and cyber laws. vii. no censorship of the internet. viii. Globally competitive telecom tariffs. ix. Tender key MSc infrastructure contracts to leading MSc Malaysia

companies willing to use MSc Malaysia as their regional hub. x. high-powered implementation agency to act as an effective one-stop

super-shop.

Table 1. MSC bill of guarantees

6 http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg16089.html



withdrawn. The future of the project was no longer certain (Matthews, 2000b) and a year later, MDec’s chairman was reported to say that they were still actively searching for investors. To date no movie studios are making big holly-wood movies in the little town of Dengkil.

The MSC Malaysia BioValleyThe same 200 hectare site south of cyberjaya brought the MSc to the global limelight again when Tun Mahathir Mohamad (then Prime Minis-ter of Malaysia) launched the BioValley project on 20 May 2003. The project was driven by the facts that biotechnology had become a major global trend, and Malaysia was identified as one of the planet’s 12 centres of mega biodiversity (Lee, 2002). it was described as MSc’s new artery, hub for biotechnology

research and development. Targeting to attract 150 biotechnology companies and investments over forty million ringgit (new Straits Times, 2003). Three new research centres were to be established, namely, the national institute for Agro-Biotechnology, the national institute for Pharmaceutical and nutraceutical Bio-technology, and the national institute for Genomics and Molecular Biology. The three research centres were to be established with the one hundred million ringgit committed by the government. completion was planned for 2005, man-aged by Bio-Valley Development corp, under the national Bio-Valley Develop-ment Board. interestingly, the project was unique in a way as Dr. Mahathir Mohamad specifically mentioned that the project will adopt the cluster approach (new Straits Times, 2002;

MASTic, 2003). on 31 october 2003, Malaysia got its fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah hj. Ahmad Badawi. The effects were seen in the BioValley project. Bio-technology became a major focus under the new prime minister’s leadership and on 28 April 2005, the national Biotech-nology Policy was launched. on 13 May 2005, the Malaysian Biotechnology corporation Sdn. Bhd. (Biotechcorp) was established to lead and develop the biotechnology sector. Thus, BioVal-ley was no longer under the purview of MDec (Biotechcorp, 2007)7.

The MSC Malaysia shared services and outsourcingin 2006, a year after Biotechcorp was established, MDec with the national icT Association and a number of industry players formed outsourcing Malaysia,

MSC performance indicators 97 98 99 00 01 02

Total number of approved MSc status companies 94 197 300 429 621 812

Jobs created 1831 3192 5681 7334 nd 18906

Knowledge workers (%) 57 61 62 58 nd 84

Sales (in billion rM) 0.39 0.61 1.02 1.34 1.89 3.93

export sales (in billion rM) 0.174* nd 0.7 0.67

r&D expenditure (in million rM) 10 24 30 79 95 258

iP registered (cumulative) nd nd nd nd 53 123

MSC performance indicators 03 04 05 06 07 08

Total number of approved MSc status companies 973 1163 1421 1728 1994 2173

Jobs created 21270 27288 33851 63907 79005 nd

Knowledge workers (%) 87 89 76 78 82 nd

Sales (in billion rM) 5.86 7.22 9.84 12.99 17.06 nd

export sales (in billion rM) 1.24 1.57 2.65 4.03 5.57 nd

r&D expenditure (in million rM) 428 670 574 815 1404 nd

iP registered (cumulative) 276 395 1072 1815 2600 nd

Business creation via MSc Technopreneur 171 companies**

Pre-seed fund programme (24.5 million rM)

Table 2. MSC performance based on MSC impact survey (1997–2008)Source: MDeC Funding Development Unit; nd, no data available*Total export sales by World Class MSC Companies.** As of November 2008

7 Biotechcorp models their initiatives based on the MSc, with their own set of bill of guarantees, international advisory board, incentives, and just like MSc with the MSc status, Biotechcorp announced their own Bionexus status in 2006. Biotechcorp’s head office is located in Kuala Lumpur, not in cyberjaya. even though, when BioValley was first launched, the site for it was the 200 hectare south of cyberjaya within the MSc, Biotechcorp’s development project, Bio-Xcell, designed to be a regional hub for biotechnology, is located in the state of Johor. Specifically, it is in iskandar Malaysia, another corridor project launched by the government in november 2006. Bio-Xcell was incorporated in october 2009 and launched in May 2010 (http://www.bio-xcell.com.my).



an initiative aimed to market Malaysia as a shared services and outsourc-ing (SSo) destination8. Malaysia was ranked third in the AT Kearney 2004 and 2005 offshore Location Attractive-ness index. This was largely made pos-sible by the establishment of MSc, the infrastructure, incentives and MDec’s marketing efforts. Through the SSo, MSc had been successful to attract a number of major multinationals. Unlike, the BioValley and e-Village, SSo had been a relatively successful MSc project that is still ongoing. however, the SSo sector often do not necessarily involve high-value activities. The services mainly are business process outsourc-ing, iT outsourcing, call centres, etc.

The MSC Malaysia creative multimedia initiativein order to realise the vision of MSc as an innovative hub, besides the flag-ship projects, MDec needed to search for other high potential sectors. To find the answer, MDec revisited the earlier creative multimedia project, minus the e-Village; in 2006, the MSc Malay-sia creative Multimedia initiative was launched. The main objective was to develop the Malaysian creative mul-timedia industry into becoming a key growth engine for the nation. According to nicholas Shariff collins, Senior Man-ager of the creative Multimedia Depart-ment, MDec, in conversation with the researcher at the 10 MSc iAP Meeting, the strategy is to drive both inbound and outbound initiatives to spur the sector’s growth with focus being on sustainable content (iP) and talent creation. The new focus will also help to bridge digital divide, enhance the use of technology within the wider creative industry and the nation in general, to develop local expertise capable of producing ‘global’ Malaysian content as well as driving creative iP creation in the country.

The initiative was designed to pro-vide both the infrastructure and sup-port systems (including financial) needed for all three main stages of the creative multimedia industry, namely, pre-production, production and post-production. Specifically, the five thrusts of the initiative are as follows:

• Talent: To develop the education sys-tem and enable industry to produce enough quality creative talent to fill the entire content supply chain.

• Funding: To facilitate adequate fund-ing mechanisms to ensure quality creative works with market potential may be developed.

• Market access: To develop pro-grammes in place to enable and facilitate companies to access high growth markets and to seek collabo-ration to achieve sales.

• Be as open as possible: Through the Bill of Guarantee moving towards self-regulation and ‘no censorship of the internet’.

• Convergence of the regulatoryenvironment: Assist various gov-ernment agencies to transform and change mindsets.

Financial support is a key compo-nent for a healthy ecosystem and the main funding programme created for the creative multimedia agenda is the MAc3 co-Production Fund. A total of 75 million ringgit had been given by the government for this initiative with emphasis on iP creation and owner-ship, sustainable enterprises and talent development. MDec had specified 15 projects to be funded through this fund, and will be involving 15 companies and projected to create around 600 job opportunities with a potential revenue amounting to around 225 million ringgit. The fund is targeted for either animation or games development projects. each

project can get up to 5 million ringgit. As the name suggests, the projects need to be a collaborative effort, specifically the Malaysian company needs to have partner or partners for either produc-tion or distribution of the iP. The MAc3 co-Production Fund will be given up to 98% of the Malaysian portion of the pro-duction costs. The type of expenditure allowable under the programme include headcount, technology (hardware and software) and reference material costs. The project also may apply for market-ing expenditure such as collateral cost and advertising in Malaysia. however, these will be upon MAc3/MDec con-sideration and approval. When the pro-duction is completed and the product is commercialised, then the company will be expected to repay the government at least 30% of the awarded fund. The successful projects will be hosting a number of student interns determined by MDec and the Malaysians involved in the project may be expected to give talks on relevant topics upon request by the MAc3 team. These can be seen as part of the programme’s knowledge sharing and transfer feature which can play a significant role in further strengthening the local industry.

Another key component of the eco-system is human capital in order to ensure there is a good supply of creative talent to feed the need of the sector cur-riculums are constantly being remod-elled by major institutions of higher learning in the country. According to Mr. Azlan Pa’wan, ceo of BigBeak Pic-tures (M) Sdn. Bhd., ‘Malaysia is begin-ning to have a good pool of both creative and technical talents, coupled with the right partners, talent development pro-grammes and other government sup-port; we will be a global creative hub.’

To jumpstart the establishment of the sector, MDec produced its own animation project–‘Saladin’9. There had

8 Source: http://www.outsourcingmalaysia.org.my9 The ‘Saladin’ project involved 5 years of r&D. The trailer of ‘Saladin The Movie’ won the award for best technology in Korean SicAF 2006,Tokyo Big Sight Award at the Tokyo international Anime Fair 2007, the best script award at the 4th international Animation and Digital Arts Festival 2007 (cicDAF2007), and the best animation finalist at the california international Animation Festival 2007. in 2009, MDec signed a co-production contract with Al-Jazeera children’s channel for a 26 half-hour episodes version of the Saladin animation.



been a number of events10 organised by MDec to ensure the momentum continue to grow. A key programme is the MSc Malaysia Annual intellectual Property creators challenge (iPcc) Series11 where grants of 20,000–50,000 were given to the winners. MDec also organises dialogues with indus-try and other stakeholders, one exam-ple is the MSc Malaysia creative Multimedia industry Dialogue, held from 27–28 october 2009. The session was done with the support from one of the local leading university with the aim to build a framework and an integrated development plan for the industry in order to realise its potential as high economic impact industry.

A new initiative by the Malaysian government (i.e. a significant part of the MSc Malaysia project and certainly the creative multimedia initiative) is the integrated content Development Pro-gramme (icon)12 initiative. in August 2009, icon was given national priority status with an allocation of 12.86 million rM. it is part of the national Broad-band initiative aimed to drive Malaysia into the K-economy by encouraging online content development, which will increase the broadband uptake, busi-ness opportunities and jobs creation. This reflects the government’s view on content development as a key economic driver for the nation. MDec had been entrusted with the implementation of icon for the private sector, while the Malaysia Administrative Modernisa-tion and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) in charge of the public sector.

DiscussionThe earlier preceding discussions of the e-Village, BioValley, SSo and creative

Multimedia initiative highlighted the changing main focus areas of the MSc over the years. When consider-ing each focus area as a sub-cluster within the MSc, each showed signs of having been through the ‘antecedence’ stage, due to the policies developed to establish and drive the sectors. how-ever, e-Village and BioValley failed to go beyond the antecedence stage as the former failed to generate enough interest among investors, and the later was spun out of the MSc.

The SSo, as sub-cluster, was show-ing signs of having gone into the ‘embry-onic cluster’ stage, where according to the MSc impact Survey 2008, MSc sta-tus companies registered under this sec-tor had climbed to 164 companies (149 operational). The sector has a number of big multinational companies such as hP, Dell, iBM, Shell, BWM, and local com-panies such as VADS, eDS MSc, next online. officially, the MSc Malaysia cre-ative Multimedia initiative was launched in 2006; however, a significant number of the key industrial actors had been in operation for much longer. Malaysia has had a thriving film, music, broadcasting industry since gaining independence in 1957. The MSc Malaysia creative Mul-timedia cluster with its digital economy orientation was showing signs of being between the ‘embryonic cluster’ stage and moving towards the ‘Developing cluster’ stage. According to the MSc impact Survey 2008, the number of MSc status companies within this sub-cluster was 235 companies with 174 identified as operational. This is because the actors within have been active in networking both formally and informally, with some taking early initiative towards establish-ing international linkages. one example

is BigBeak Pictures (M) Sdn. Bhd., the company actively networks with local industrial actors, academia and govern-ment agencies as well as production stu-dios in Thailand and republic of Korea. inSPiDeA13, an earlier animation com-pany (established in 2002) managed to have products taken up by the likes of nickelodeon, Animax and the cartoon network.

The number of MSc status compa-nies has been increasing towards the level where a critical mass of compa-nies would be reached (Table 2). Fur-thermore, since the corridor includes the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the government administrative centre, Putra-jaya, there are high concentration of both financial institutions and governmental agencies within and around its boundary. The corridor also benefits from having a concentration of the nation’s universi-ties within and around it. As a whole the MSc was showing signs of being in the ‘Developing cluster’ stage.

ConclusionThe life span for clusters tends to span decades. Thus, it is important to adopt a long view when evaluating and develop-ing a cluster. A short-term assessment may not accurately capture a cluster especially with policy-driven cluster initi-atives such as the MSc. An assessment of the MSc within the first 5 years of its establishment would not paint an opti-mistic picture. in fact, the MSc benefited from the Malaysian government contin-ued commitment to the project since its launch in 1996. The commitment given to the MSc gave it the time needed to get the cluster structural components in place and the clustering behaviour to materialise among the actors.

10 one event is the inaugural MSc Malaysia Kre8tif! Digital content conference held in Kuala Lumpur from 7–9 December 2009, where the invited speakers ranged from local players such as Les’ copaque Productions Sdn. Bhd., KrU Studios, Animonsta Studios Sdn. Bhd., etc., to international leading organizations and individuals like Marvel Animation, Dreamworks as well as John Stevenson the co-director to the animated blockbuster “Kung Fu Panda”. Also, MDec partnered with X:Media:Lab to organized the X:Media:Lab Kuala Lumpur on 10–11 December 2009 in Putrajaya. The event’s theme was ‘Wealth of Animation: co-Production’, designed as a meeting place for companies and individuals with creative ideas via concept development, business matching and direct access to experienced creative professionals. Assistances were provided via the panel of mentors which were made up by both local and international experts.

11 http://www.mscmalaysia.my/topic/iPcc12 http://www.mscmalaysia.my/topic/icon13 http://www.inspidea.com/corp/index.html



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WIPO Re:Search — A consortium of public and private sector organizations

The World intellectual Property organization (WiPo), in an unprecedented collaboration with leading pharmaceutical companies and Bio Ventures for Global health (BVGh), launched today WiPo re:Search, a new consortium where public and private sector organizations share valuable intellectual property (iP) and expertise with the global health research community to promote development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to treat neglected tropical dis-eases, malaria, and tuberculosis.

in WiPo re:Search, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD1, novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi are collaborating with WiPo, BVGh, the U.S. national institutes of health (nih), and multiple non-profit research organizations. These include the california institute of Technology, the center for World health & Medicine, the Drugs for neglected Diseases initiative, Fundação oswaldo cruz (Fiocruz), Massachusetts institute of Technology, Medicines for Malaria Venture, PATh, the South African Medical research council, the Swiss Tropical and Public health institute, the University of california, Berkeley, and the University of Dundee (UK).

According to the World health organization (Who), neglected tropical diseases today impair the lives of an estimated 1 billion people. The Who provides technical advice to WiPo on public health issues and research priorities, as appro-priate. By providing a searchable, public database of available intellectual property assets, information, and resources, WiPo re:Search facilitates new partnerships with organizations that conduct research on treatments for neglected tropical diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Membership in WiPo re:Search as a user, provider, or supporter is open to all organizations that endorse, adhere to, and support the project’s Guiding Principles. These Guiding Principles include the commitment that iP licensed via WiPo re:Search will be licensed on a royalty-free basis for research and development on neglected tropical diseases in any country and on a royalty-free basis for sale of neglected tropical disease medicines in, or to, least developed countries.

The WiPo re:Search database includes a wide variety of contributions relevant to malaria, tuberculosis, and other neglected tropical diseases, including individual compounds and associated data, screening hits from compound librar-ies, and expertise and know-how in pharmaceutical research and development. in addition, WiPo re:Search offers the opportunity for neglected tropical disease researchers to work directly with scientists at pharmaceutical companies to advance r&D on these diseases. As WiPo re:Search moves forward, offerings from current partners will continue to grow and new providers are expected to join to add to the wealth of information, compounds, and services available.

The founding eight pharmaceutical companies, WiPo, BVGh, and nih are joined by a distinguished group of globally recognized institutions as providers, potential users, and supporters of WiPo re:Search (see annex). BVGh will man-age the WiPo re:Search Partnership hub, which will facilitate relationships between the pharmaceutical company providers and new users.

For more information, contact:

WIPO Media Relations Section

Tel: +41-22-3388161

BIO Ventures for Global Health Molly Polen

Director of Communications Tel: +1-202-4706232; +1-202-3403593; E-mail: [email protected]