Nikkei Asia Prizes 1998

Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM)

Boosting Quality Of Life Through Research Rubber institute in Malaysia an asset to science, agriculture

BY MASAMI NAKAMURA
Senior staff writer

The Malaysian rubber industry has come a long way since it began about 150 years ago with 120 rubber trees imported from Brazil.

Ideal growing conditions were a huge help, but the nation's industry could not have come as far as it has without the efforts of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia (RRIM), which has been improving upon and broadening the applications for rubber since the institute was established in 1925.

RRIM has been focusing its efforts on improving rubber trees and protecting the trees against disease. These efforts have helped improve the livelihoods of the nation's approximately 400,000 rubber growers, most of whom are small farmers. The organization has also been actively involved in developing new uses for natural rubber. It developed the Malaysian rubber standards and helped make rubber become a widely used industrial material.

RRIM's research and development activities involve finding new applications for natural rubber as an engineering material. Abdul Aziz, director general of the Malaysian Rubber Board, a government-run body to which RRIM belongs, said he wants R&D on rubber to help form one of the pillars of Malaysian industry. Aziz is also the head of RRIM and one of Malaysia's leading figures on rubber research, production and use.

RRIM's core facilities are located in Sungai Buloh, a 40-minute drive from Kuala Lumpur. The 1,300-hectare (3,212-acre) grounds contain a huge complex which includes a testing plantation, a seed-growing plant, a development center for rubber products, a testing center, a research lab, houses for workers and schools for their children. RRIM is the largest organization of its kind in the world devoted to R&D on natural rubber.

The center's latest project involves trying to develop rubber trees that produce medicinal substances by using gene-engineering technology. Because rubber trees secrete a large amount of sap, researchers are trying to make the trees produce sap with useful properties, Yeang Hoong Yeat, the head of the Malaysian Rubber Board's Biotechnology & Strategic Research Unit, said. He said the basic technology for doing so already exists.

Research projects aimed at causing cows and sheep to secrete medicinal substances in their milk have become quite common, but similar experiments using plants are rare. RRIM's vast knowledge of rubber, accumulated through decades of basic research, has enabled such a project to take place.

About 40% of the rubber on the global markets is natural rubber, and demand for it is growing because of its durability and oil-resistant properties. Further development of the rubber industry is one of the highlights of the Malaysian government's second 10-year industrial development plan, which began in 1996. The Malaysian Rubber Board plays a central role in the national project, and is constructing a mammoth R&D center called Rubber City.

Aziz said the honor of winning the prize goes not only to RRIM, but also to all Malaysian farmers and businessmen involved in the rubber industry. Aziz said consumers also deserve recognition for the award since they have been the driving force behind the great improvement in the quality of Malaysian rubber.