Easy access to other South East Asian markets, tax incentives and better infrastructural facilities make Malaysia a good destination for Indian biotech firms, including SMEs to establish their footprint.

Moreover, with India being identified as one of the top five biotech leaders in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia is also undertaking initiatives such as offering 10-year tax holiday, introducing duty exemptions and incentives in order to encourage investments by Indian SMEs in the biotechnology sector.

Given the fact that Malaysia is also banking on India to accelerate the development of its biotechnology sector, Indian SMEs in this domain must capitalise on this opportunity and look for areas of synergy and untapped areas of Malaysia’s biotechnology sector.

Indian SMEs can tap the highly potential Malaysian biotech market by catering to its numerous sub-sectors such as biopharma, including vaccines and drugs, bioservices, clinical trials, bio-agri, industrial enzymes and bioinformatics, among others.

Policy initiatives are being undertaken by Malaysian and Indian governments to promote investments by SMEs from both sides in the biotechnology sector.

Sucheta Dhoot