Table 2 shows that Japan still leads in their patenting activities with a total of 235 Geomatic patents issued for the 20- year period. And this is followed by South Korea, Taiwan and China. Out of the total 3442 Geomatic patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, only 286 or 8% originates from the Asian countries. The remainder of the 92% of the patents mostly originates either from North America or Europe. The numbers shows that there is lack of innovative activities amongst the Geomatic professionals in the Asian region compared to their North American or European counterparts. What is more disturbing is that Malaysia, which boasted four higher education institutions (UTM, UPM, UiTM and USM) that offered Geomatic program does not possessed a single patent in the Geomatic sector. Ironically Singapore, which the number of Geomatic professionals is far less than that of Malaysia has already produced three patents that are related to the Geomatic sector.

To make a definitive comparison on the innovation activities of Geomatic sector to other sectors, data for five different sectors are compiled and tabulated for selected Asian nations. The sectors concerned are Advanced Materials, Automotive, Health, ICT and Transport. Table 3 shows the patents count of major Asian nations. The table is based on the indicators computed for the same four five-year periods: 1982-1986, 1987- 1991, 1992-1996 and 1997-2001.

The table shows that Japan leads in all sectors in terms of the number of patents issued. But the technological capabilities of Korea and Taiwan are budding, with their growing strength most evident in the advanced materials and ICT sectors. In the transportation sector, Korea and Taiwan are showing steadily growing strength. On the other sides, three Asian nations of Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore do not have enough patenting activities in any of these five sectors to be identified as emerging competitors. Singapore for example allocated nearly 1.79 % of its GDP for R&D purposes and these percentage points is comparable to Korea or Taiwan, but still lags behind. The most probable reason for this trend is that these three nations lack what is called the indigenous R&D capability. For the most part, manufacturing and industrial development are currently supported by R&D done elsewhere.

Comparing the number of patents generated by Geomatic professionals with the other five sectors shows a very disturbing trend. Lets take Japan for example, leaders both in the number of Geomatic patents and number of all types of patents for Asian nation. For the 20-year period, Japan has produced a total of 235 patents related to Geomatic sector. Among the fi ve sectors, transport shows the least number of patents produced that is 5213 patents. Therefore, when compared to the weakest link of the five sectors, Geomatic still pale behind considering the number of patents produced. Even though Malaysia does not produce a single patent in Geomatic field, but all the other fi ve sectors have some form of innovative activities in terms of the number of patents. The problem of lack of innovative activity is not only confi ned to Malaysia alone, but also to all other Asian nations as shown both in Table 2 and 3. The lack of innovative activities it seems is not confined to a particular nation but to the Geomatic professionals itself.

Looking at the dismal performance of Geomatic professionals in terms of innovative activities in most part of Asian and Malaysia in particular, is it there is something that holding up these professionals from doing so? With our universities and numerous polytechnics offering Geomatic program, more is expected from them. Is it a problem of lack or inadequacy of skills? Or is it these professionals are too busy and being narrowly focused on doing something else?

Malaysian business are generally doing well, in large measure, as a result of our national investments in science and technology, and the innovation and competitiveness they yield. In this perpetual marathon that is global competition, now is the appropriate time to strengthen our effort into bringing the Geomatic field to greater heights.

• Post Graduate Prospectus, 2003/2004. Faculty of Geo information Science and Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, 100 pp.
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