The Entrepreneur Development Programme In Malaysia’s MSC Cluster – The

This paper overviews the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and describes its MSC Technopreneur Development (MTD) Flagship programme, one of the recent initiatives by the Government of Malaysia, as a support system for technology based small and medium enterprises in Malaysia. A brief overview of the SMEs in Malaysia is presented and then the paper presents the case of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) cluster initiative as regional system of innovation for supporting technology based Innovative SMEs in the ICT Sector. The MSC initiative, while considered as being successful in terms of attracting large firms and MNCs into the cluster, has not as successful in terms of being a support system to be able to spur the growth of SMEs in this sector. In order to rectify or over come this lacunae, the government of Malaysia developed a promotion strategy called the MSC Technopreneur Development (MTD) Flagship programme. The paper describes the MTD programme as a Sub-national system of Innovation for SMEs. The MTD programme uses the entrepreneurial life cycle as a framework for developing the support programme to spur the growth of SMEs in the ICT sector. The programme is still very new and the results are yet to be seen but it is hoped that the paper will provide some valuable ideas for those interested in the concept of a sub-national systems of innovation for SMEs