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| News at Home | ||||||
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| AgBiotech | ||||||
| The Prime Minister challenged leaders of Pahang to emulate Holland to thrive on agriculture. The country, which is about the size of Pahang, thrives on its agricultural industry, with 27.8% of land mass used for the purpose. Currently, Pahang uses 43% of its land mass for agriculture and is the country’s main producer for meat, flowers and vegetables. |
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In
other news, the efforts of two brothers in using high technology and
good agricultural practices in pomelo
cultivation have paid off, as they were accredited with the
Malaysian Farm Certification Scheme for Good Agricultural Practices.
The brothers from Ipoh, who are third generation pomelo farmers employed
the latest techniques in agriculture to produce its pomelos which are
exported to Canada, Hong Kong and Indonesia. |
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| Health & Medicine | ||||||
| Health
issues dominate the news this month as outbreaks of dengue have been
occurring throughout the country. Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever
are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics. It may be transmitted
to humans by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, and manifested by a sudden
onset of fever, with severe headache, joint and muscular pains, and
rashes. With the high number of cases across the country, the Ministry
of Health is considering the use of biological
approaches to fight dengue. |
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| However,
Malaysians are in for a long wait for the formation of a vaccine. According
to the University Malaya Medical Center, only one company is showing
signs of producing a vaccine
for dengue by 2012. However, much is at stake as more virulent
and deadly strains of dengue are taking its toll onto Malaysians.
Den-2, a dengue viral stereotype will be seen as predominant for the
coming year. The last two major outbreaks of Den-2 were in the 1990s.
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On the other hand, the State Veterinary Department will be keeping close watch on migratory birds out of concern of a possible bird flu pandemic. Thousands of migratory birds visit the Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary in Kerian annually from as far away as Siberia. Birds were captured and inspected by sanctuary staff, while swabs were taken of their saliva for testing. Recent outbreaks of bird flu throughout the globe has raised international concerns of the disease. |
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| Investment | ||||||
| Biodiesel is the buzzword in the industry today with corporations venturing into the commercial production as oil prices soar to market highs. In the local scene, Golden Hope Plantations Bhd. announces it plans to build two more biodiesel plants costing more than RM 100 million collectively and is slated to produce up to 200,000 tonnes of biodiesel annually. On the other hand, IOI Corp Bhd. will also be venturing into biodiesel production. However, their activity will be focused in Netherlands as they rent the land next to their refinery to Biox BV which will buy feedstock to generate their power plant. |
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In other news, USains Holding Sdn Bhd. is slated to extend their incubation services to scientists from other universities and the private sectors. The move was seen to be in line to optimize commercial utilisation of their resources. |
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Industry
& Trade |
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The
fledgling local biotechnology industry is seeing great commercial activity
in the past months as companies increase their forays into the industry.
Among them, Uchi
Technologies Bhd. who currently supply medical equipment
to European companies is placing more emphasis into its biotech wing
in hopes of increasing its revenue in the field from 20% to 50% by unveiling
its latest prototype device for biotechnology. Similarly, Vivantis
Technologies Sdn. Bhd. expects its life science unit to boosts
its revenue to RM 4 – 5 million from its research items product
line Vivantis-EURx by next year. The product line includes up to 120
of the 220-250 restriction enzymes available in the market today. |
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Companies are also introducing more high technological solutions to biotechnology with recent innovations. Synamatix Sdn. Bhd. announced that its collaboration with industry leaders in pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors may result in breakthrough technology that may sequence the human genome in 24 hours. The process is expected to be unveiled by next year, and will greatly reduce the cost of sequencing the human genome. Similarly, India’s Tari Biotech plans to introduce a liquid bio-fertiliser to the Malaysian public. The biofertiliser contains the bacteria azozpirillum, phospher and knofer to conserve the fertility of the soil for a longer period and boost production. |
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In
other news, Gemencheh-based
IOI Research Center is being sought after for its production
of high yield oil palm planting materials. Its six million germinating
seedlings per year are sold out annually with orders coming from major
plantation companies like PPB Oil Palm Bhd., Rimbunan Hijau group, TH
Plantations Bhd and J. C. Chang Group. |
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