Financial Institutions Should Accept IP As Security For Loan - Ismail Sabri

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) -- Financial institutions should give their support and accept intellectual property (IP) as security for loan in a bid to enable small and medium-scale enterprises (SME) in the country to go global.

Source from (Bernama): http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=932847
Published: March 08, 2013

Source from (The Sun Daily): http://www.thesundaily.my/news/631229
Published: March 08, 2013

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said he would propose to Bank Negara to make recommendations to financial institutions to accept IP as security for loan once Malaysia had its own qualified and recognised IP evaluators.

"This issue is still a big problem in our country. Financial institutions cannot accept IP as security for loan because we don't have qualified IP evaluators.

"Prior to this, if we need to use the service of an IP evaluator, we have to get it from other countries, such as Australia," he told a press conference after the launch of IP Evaluation Training Module mounted by the Intellectual Property Corp of Malaysia (MyIPO) here today.

He said the ministry was also in the midst of discussing with relevant government-linked financial institutions, such as Bank Rakyat, to start accepting IP as security loan.

For a start, Ismail Sabri said MyIPO and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDec) would select 20 participants to undergo the IP Evaluation Training to help SME entrepreneurs in evaluating their IPs.

He said the IP evaluators would comprise individuals from various fields, such as law, technical and finance, and would undergo the training for three months in stages starting this year.

He said the selected participants should have at least eight years of experience before they can be recognised as IP evaluators.

-- BERNAMA