Can Ashran Ghazi turn Malaysia’s fragmented innovation efforts into a commercialisation engine?
- ID
- 17942
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 26 Aug 2026, 10:31 AM
- Fetched
- 26 Aug 2026, 11:16 AM
- Provider
- Digital News Asia
- Category
- malaysia-tech
- Original URL
- https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/digital-economy/can-ashran-ghazi-turn-malaysias-fragmented-innovation-efforts-commercialisation
- Source URL
- https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/rss.xml
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 26 Aug 2026, 11:16 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_foundersai_ml_learnersdevelopers
What happened
Ashran Ghazi, CEO of MRANTI (Malaysia's technology commercialisation agency), is trying to reposition MRANTI as the orchestrator of a national commercialisation system rather than a collection of standalone programmes. The article focuses on the KL Innovation Belt (KLIB), announced at KL20 in April 2024 to concentrate startups, investors, corporates, and universities in Bukit Jalil and Bangsar, which went quiet after an initial pre-onboarding session for seven startups. Ashran acknowledges MRANTI's weakness is storytelling—showing how its sandboxes, infrastructure, partnerships, and capital connect to move Malaysian research into adoption.
Why it matters
If you are building a startup or deep-tech venture in Malaysia, MRANTI's park and KLIB corridor in Bukit Jalil/Bangsar offer physical infrastructure, sandboxes, and industry-partner access worth evaluating—but the article indicates the ecosystem is still fragmented and the connective tissue between programmes is unclear. Founders should pressure-test whether MRANTI's offerings (park tenancy, pre-onboarding, industry partnerships) actually accelerate commercialisation for their specific case before committing time.
Discussion angle
Is MRANTI's Bukit Jalil/Bangsar corridor genuinely useful for builders who need commercialisation traction, or is it still primarily a government-programme aggregation exercise? Compare what was promised at KL20 versus what has actually shipped two years on.