The government will launch a major research and development laboratory next month in its hi-tech zone to attract local scientists working abroad to return home, officials said today.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will open InventQjaya (IQJ), a 28,000 square meter laboratory in the Cyberjaya township in the Multimedia Super Corrridor (MSC) for high-tech firms, on Oct 11.

IQJ is a government-backed venture with US-based Reveo Inc, aimed at accelerating Mahathir's goal of making Malaysia a developed nation by 2020, Reveo said in a statement to Bernama news agency.

Reveo chairman and chief executive Sadeg Mustafa Faris said a key objective of the IQJ was to recruit local scientists working abroad to return home to help turn Malaysians into great inventors.

The IQJ will "invent, discover and innovate new global industries that will become the dominant corporations for Malaysia's future knowledge economy," he said.

"It is consistent with the prime minister's Vision 2020 concept to make Malaysia a fully developed nation," Faris said.

"We aim to bring the spirit of Thomas Edison to Cyberjaya."

Higher capital expenditure

Based in Elmsford, New York, Reveo is involved in creating new technologies and incubating businesses that commercialise and develop those technologies.

The MSC, a hi-tech enclave modeled after California's Silicon Valley, was launched in 1996 by the 77-year-old Mahathir who will retire at the end of October after 22 years in power.

Mahathir earlier this month said the MSC would be expanded and linked with similar cyber-cities worldwide after it surpassed expectations, with sales in the zone topping RM4 billion last year and projected to reach RM5.85 billion this year.

More than 900 firms, including 59 world-class companies, are operating in the zone, he said. Capital expenditure in the zone is seen rising to RM850 million this year, up 37 percent from 2002.

Investment in the MSC picked up pace in the past year with British banking group HSBC, Sweden's telecoms firm Ericsson and German luxury car maker BMW launching regional centres in the hub. - AFP