SUMMARY OF INDIVIDUAL TOPIC 1: Research and Development (R&D)

as a way to commercialise the herbal industry in Malaysia

By Alvin Tung Kwong Choong
Malaysia provides varieties of flora and fauna to explore and thus
is the ideal country for commercialisation of herbal products due to its
resources . One of the main reason why Malaysia lagging behind
compare to other countries is lack of Research and Development
(R&D). According to InvestorWords.com , R&D means discovering new
knowledge about products, processes and services and then applying
that knowledge to create new and improved products, processes and
services

that

fill

market

needs.

Thus

the

way

to

enhance

commercialisation of herbal products in Malaysias herbal industry is

Research

and

Development

development, discovery of new

(R&D)

through

biotechnology

varieties of herbal products and

improvement of planting and harvesting technologies.

Generally, biotechnology development is necessary because it
builds up our research community will ensure our country herbal
industry to have ability to process herb materials to higher value
products from low cost production of the herb materials. Secondly,
discover and develop varieties of herbal products should be done due
to Malaysia too focus into some kind of herbs only. Besides, it also
generates our countrys income if a new species of plants have been
discovered which is the cure in some specific treatment. Finally,
another way to enhance commercialisation through R&D is to improve
planting and harvesting technologies. Finally, improve or new
development in planting and harvesting technologies will produce the
herbal products with high quality with high efficiency and thus will
increases the production with low cost.