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Industry & Environment
A biodiesel plant in Rotterdam, Holland by Golden Hope Plantations Bhd is being scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. The plant will use oils of European origin such as rapeseed, soyabean and palm oil and will begin producing 200,000 tonnes per annum. The demand for biodiesel in Europe is expected to rise to 12 million tones in 2010.
 
 
Surveys conducted in East Malaysia by UMS scientists have shown that our marine mammal heritage is under a fresh barrage of threats. In a paper presented during a recent Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Dr. Saifullah Ariffin Jaaman, lecturer of marine mammal and fishery sciences with the university, mentioned threats include increase water turbidity due to upstream logging and cultivation for oil palm plantations, increased levels of urban waste as well as the loss of mangrove to aquaculture farms and logging.
         
Medical & Health
Malaysia’s blood bank woes could just be over should an arrangement to obtain blood substitute product production technologies come through. The move, which may push Malaysia to the forefront in being the world largest producer of artificial blood, has been approved by the High Impact Investment Committee. It is in line with the government’s wish to introduce high value-added technologies into the country, as well as to speed up the country’s growth of the biotech industry.
 
 

In other news, alarms have been sounding across the country over dengue cases breaching the 1000 mark for the second time in a month. Hospitals and health clinics have been put on alert with regards to the epidemic status of the disease. A toal of 23,858 dengue cases have been reported between January and June nationwide compared to 16,808 cases during the same period last year. The highest number of cases were recorded in Selangor with 9137 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 4548 cases, Johor 1658 cases, Perak, 1555 cases, and Kelantan 1530 cases.

 
Similarly, the Health Ministry is on the lookout, as a new bat virus which causes respiratory illness has just been discovered. A team from the ministry, led by Dr. Chua Kaw Bing, discovered the virus when a man living in the suburban area of Bemban complained of high fever, cough, sore throat and runny nose in May last year. Analysis indicated close genetic relationships with this and Pulau Virus isolated from fruit bats in 1999.
         
Policy & Trade
Malaysian banking institutions should strengthen the number of agriculture industry experts, according to the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin. Commenting at an UMNO Agriculture Bureau workshop, the minister mentioned that there is a growing need for such experts so as to ensure loan applicants get the right kind of attention from banking institutions, as well as to allow them to understand the fledging industry better.
In other news, industry players are enthused over the scheduled launch of the Malaysia Biofuel Industry Act 2006 by early next year. The Act, was aimed at facilitating the domestic development of the biofuel industry as well as allowing the mandate of the government to use biofuel for various activities in the country. Currently, the Malaysian Industry Development Authority (MIDA) has approved 92 licenses to set up biodiesel plants in the country with four of these plants commercially in production and a further 3 undergoing production trials.
 
The move has been anticipated to profit from growth in biodiesel consumption and outputs by 2010. However, according to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the government will also ensure adequate supplies of palm oil be produced for food production. At the Malaysia International Commodity Conference and Showcase 2007 at PWTC, the prime minister commented that he would like to remind the industry that while palm oil is a good feedstock for biodiesel, the industry should not abandon palm oil as a food source. Recent worries over tight supplies prompted a bout of speculative buying causing crude palm oil prices to soar above RM2599 per metric ton.
 
Malaysia will see greater cooperation with Iran in the field of agriculture with the signage of both countries to a memorandum of understanding on agricultural cooperation. The signing of the MoU coincides with the visit of the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Tan Sri Muhyidin Yassin to Iran, and would kick start greater developmental relations between both countries.