SHAH ALAM, 6 Apr. – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) spin off company, Membrane Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd. (MTMSB) has entered into a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with Serba Dinamik Group Berhad (SDGB) for the development of the first industrial scale membrane manufacturing technology in Malaysia for hemodialysis and water treatment.

This agreement marked a new chapter for the industry in Malaysia especially in kidney treatment technology as well as water and wastewater treatment.

The signing ceremony was officiated by the Minister of Higher Education Malaysia, Honorable Datuk Seri Dr Noraini binti Ahmad and was held virtually according to the new norms.

UTM was represented by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Datuk Ts. Dr. Ahmad Fauzi bin Ismail while SDGB by the Managing Director and Group CEO, Dato ‘Ir. Ts. Dr. Mohd Abdul Karim bin Abdullah.

In conjunction with this ceremony, SDGB handed over a cheque replica MTMSB as the symbolic of the beginning of the project.

Dato’ Mohd Abdul Karim said through this MoA, SDGB will be fully funding the project for the development of an industrial-scale factory and membrane manufacturing system in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

This agreement would also be focusing on membrane manufacturing and commercialization technologies that has big potential to be adopted in Malaysia and the global market in the future.

“Based on the Key Economic Result Areas (NKEA), the areas of Water Reclamation and Healthcare are among the niche priority areas at the national level.

Thus, SDGB and UTM aim to assist the govenment in providing a better living environment for the people including access to clean water supply, overcome the water pollution and aid the health of kidney patients.

On the current market demand as well, we believe and very confident that this collaboration will succeed to become the first Local Industry-Scale Membrane Technology for hemodialysis, water & wastewater treatment in Malaysia for the global market,” he added.

Whilst, according to Prof. Datuk Fauzi, the potential market demand for these two products is now very large, especially at the global and national levels.

“For example, the government has issued subsidized expenditure for kidney treatment to patients every year with its operating costs constantly increasing in line with the increase in new kidney patients in the country.

Recent statistics from the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia shows in 10 years of growth, the number of patients for kidney disease has increased rapidly from 15,080 in 2006 to 38,157 in 2016, showing that kidney failure disease is increasing at an alarming rate with more than 4,000 Malaysians diagnosed each year,” he said.

According to him, the issue of clean water supply is also an important factor in the cooperation between the two parties, taking into account the increasingly limited supply of raw water in the world and the issue of pollution of raw water resources that often occurs now.

“Limited raw water resources are often considered insufficient in the future due to population growth as well as the expansion of urban and industrial development.

But the fact is that we still have seawater that is more sustainable for the long term and we cannot rely too much on rivers and dams alone as a source of water for the use of treated water supply.

Therefore membrane technology will be highlighted as an alternative solution for treated clean water supply,” he said.

This collaboration shows that the results of research from local universities can also be applied in the Malaysian industrial market as well as globally in the future.

It is hoped that the cooperation between SDGB and MTMSB will be successful and bring Malaysia’s name as the leader in membrane technology in the future.