An assessment towards establishment of a policy framework for Malaysia’s space sector development

Abstract

Space sector is a part of key area that will contribute to the sustainable development of a nation. It is significant to the country’s economic activities, adaptation to the emerging technologies and the well-being of humanity. As a developing country and is moving forward to become a developed nation, Malaysia has to look for a right approach to venture and sustain in its space endeavor. Thus, the main aim of this research is to explore and identify a set of guiding principles that could be the backbone for Malaysia’s space sector development. This framework should suit the country’s need and limitation to make the space sector sustains and eventually returns a huge benefit to the nation. Currently there is no policy framework yet to guide Malaysia on its space sector development, despite there is an increasing need for it. This research adopted a mixed-methods approach. A questionnaire survey of 100 respondents with space related background was done for the quantitative study while a semi structured interviews with 10 space expert respondents who had significant role in the past and current Malaysia’s space endeavor was successfully carried out for the qualitative study. The quantitative data was analysed by using SPSS and the qualitative data was analysed by using framework analysis with the assistance of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS). From the literature review on the documents that are related to the national space policy in Canada, Australia and Japan, it was discovered that there are at least 13 area of interests that were identified as the backbone to these respective countries’ policy framework in their space sectors. These 13 areas of interest have been embedded into the survey questions and further narrowed down into 7 main areas of interests that eventually form up the interview questions. This study has managed to come out with five guiding principles for Malaysia’s space sector development policy framework based on the inductive approach that was adopted during the interview sessions. The five guiding principles are; to drive the nation’s economic growth, viable and cost-effective development, complete ecosystem of capacity building, clear action plan and regulation and public enculturation. This final set of principles could contribute significantly towards the constitution of Malaysia’s space sector development policy framework and at the same time addressing the limitation that may hinder the nation’s progress in this strategic sector.