104 | Agricultural Innovation in Developing East Asia
for a discussion of incubators and other efforts. Technology transfer offices that offer, for example, IPR support for technology commercialization (for instance, Tsinghua University in China and Inova in Brazil [World Bank 2012]), can also be linked to incubator services.
BOX 6.11
Public-private efforts to stimulate greater private sector investment in innovation Incubators. Incubators stimulate technology commercialization and business development. Some incubators are dedicated to accelerating technology commercialization or technology transfer. The former typically have strong ties with agricultural research institutions; oftentimes they are arms or spinoffs of such institutions. Examples include the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics–affiliated Agribusiness Incubator in India; IPB University in Indonesia; and Brazil’s CENTEV/UFV Technology Incubator, affiliated with the Federal University of Vicosa. Villgro in India accelerates the uptake of indigenous technology with activities involving knowledge creation and sharing, competitions and awards, brokerage between innovators and entrepreneurs, and retail, mostly at the village level. These activities aim to build rural confidence and networks (World Bank 2016). Start-ups. Vietnam promotes start-ups in agriculture as well as other areas. Mekong Business Initiative’s (MBI’s) Innovation Challenge promotes the incubation and acceleration of enterprises by helping startups access a larger pool of resources. In addition to assisting start-ups with access to finance, MBI supports mentorship programs to help start-ups develop their business management skills. The program also extracts bottom-up policy lessons by piloting innovative business models in partnership with young (and especially female) entrepreneurs. MBI has organized different acceleration programs and competitions in four sectors: the Mekong Agriculture Technology Challenge, Fintech Challenge Vietnam, Smart City Innovation Challenge, and Mekong Innovative Startup Tourism (Austrade 2019). Grants and soft loans. Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA) provides grants and soft loans for innovative projects in firms primarily in the areas of bio-business, eco-industry, and design solutions. The NIA has four financing schemes: technology
capitalization for testing prototypes, zero-interest innovation projects to secure low-cost loans from banks for technology development, cluster-based innovation projects primarily in biotechnology fields, and venture capital to initiate production (this last program has been discontinued). The NIA has also established an Innovation Management School, which provides training for executives (Intarakumnerd 2010). Venture capital. Venture capital for agriculture is available in China and Malaysia. In China, however, venture capital and start-ups have yet to reach the level seen in the developed world. Most of the deals fall in the expansion stages, ranging between $1 million and $50 million. Concerted investment and acquisition by the country’s largest technology companies, such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, which invested at least $741 million in agri-food start-ups in 2017, is changing the scene (Burwood-Taylor 2018). Major concerns relate to having an appropriate enabling environment, that is, rules governing finance and investment, and the need to facilitate ongoing education and engagement in food system issues and opportunities in both the start-up and investor communities in China (WEF 2018). The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund for technology transfer is a public-private venture fund, focused on importing technologies that can be adapted to the national oil palm industry. Incubators transfer technology across national and corporate borders in various ways, including through intellectual property markets, manufacturing contracts, and joint ventures (World Bank 2016). Malaysia has promoted venture capital for years, but firms have made limited use of it. Restrictive investment criteria, poorly communicated business plans, low public awareness, a general disconnect between the potential entrepreneurs and the venture capital industry, and a lack of skilled personnel to manage the funds are the main obstacles for many companies (OECD 2016).
