they nevertheless face administrative constraints and their rd base is narrower than those of oecd countries in terms of research quality malaysian universities underperform with regard to main competitors in singapore taiwan and hong kong the government has been concerned not only with fdi investment the acceleration of technology commercialisation and boosting business spending on rd but also with the need to increase local innovation capabilities and it has concentrated its interventions on the elaboration of rd tax incentives and the encouragement of strategic investment numerous schemes have been launched but so far the volume of grants channelled to university research has remained modest