Science and technology in Malaysia

In an effort to create a self-reliant defensive ability and support national development, Malaysia privatised some of its military facilities in the 1970s. This has created a defence industry, which was brought under the Malaysia Defence Industry Council in 1999. The government continues to promote and market this sector and its competitiveness. The first satellite operated by Malaysia was during 1996 when a private company, MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd (formerly known as Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd) bought 2 communications satellites from Boeing Satellite Systems named them MEASAT-1 and MEASAT-2. MEASAT-3 and MEASAT-3A was launched on 2006 and 2009 respectively. Malaysia successfully designed and built its first remote sensing satellite named TiungSAT-1 through collaboration between Astronautic Technology Sdn Bhd in Malaysia and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. in the United Kingdom. The satellite was launched into low Earth orbit on 26 September 2000 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Malaysia's second remote sensing satellite, RazakSAT was launched on 14 July 2009 and RazakSAT-2 was planned to be launched in 2015. In 2002 the Malaysian National Space Agency (Angkasa) was formed to deal with all of Malaysia's activities in space, and to promote space education and space experiments. It is focused on developing the "RazakSAT" satellite, which is a remote sensing satellite with charge-coupled device cameras. In early 2006, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and three other finalists were selected for the Angkasawan spaceflight programme. This programme came about when Russia agreed to transport one Malaysian to the International Space Station as part of a multibillion-dollar purchase of 18 Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighter jets by the Royal Malaysian Air Force. satellite, RazakSAT In an effort to create a self-reliant defensive ability and support national development Malaysia privatised some of its military facilities in the 1970s. On 31 October 2011 Malaysia became a party to the Antarctic Treaty. In July 2011, a group of Malaysian scientists founded the Scientific Malaysian network, a non-profit initiative to connect Malaysian scientists across the globe. ==Scientific Malaysian network==

Scientific Malaysian network was formed by the local and oversea Malaysian scientists. Most of the Malaysian scientists are employed in the public universities or governmental research institutions and partially in the private universities and private R&D department with commercialisation pressure. A significant number of Malaysian scientists are established their research career oversea, which some of them stay in the country completed their PhD. Local and oversea Malaysian scientists are connected through various research activities via conferences, forums, publications and joint research funding applications. Connecting the local and oversea Malaysian scientists are important to unite the country scientific forces to contribute the country development. ==Malaysian scientists abroad==

Malaysian scientist abroad or overseas Malaysian scientist are the common terms for Malaysian scientists residing abroad who are active in the research and development in the scientific community. A number of the Malaysian scientists continue their research career after finishing their Ph.D. overseas, particularly in the US, UK, European Union, China, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Malaysian scientists abroad have strong connection with home country and inherit the linguistic strength in the multicultural community with Malays, Chinese and India. ==Science policies in Malaysia==

The Malaysian government establishes science policies to push forward the science and technology development in the country under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The government helps actively connect the local and overseas scientists to push forward the Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50), but this initiative of national development was abandoned in 2018 with some aspirations maintained by the Pakatan Harapan (PH)'s Malaysia Baharu government after the 2018 Malaysian general election. ==References==