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.