Interview with Dr. Abdul Rahim Abdul Samad

October 20, 2021

First place in the field of economics in the first round of the KANS Scientific Competition

• Introduce yourself and give a summary of your academic background.

Associate Professor Dr. Abdul Rahim Abdul Samad is an expert in the field of Energy Economics and Natural Resource Economics. He obtained his PhD in Economics from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 2011. As a lecturer, he has taught a number of graduate courses for PhD and master programmed namely Environmental Economics, Natural Resource Economics, and Current Issues in Economics from 2011 to present. Similarly, during the same period, he taught Intermediate Microeconomics, Principle of Economics, Principle of Microeconomics and Natural Resource and Environmental Economics at undergraduate level.

• Introduce the scientific achievement that you presented in the KANS scientific competition.

Currently, the significant topic in the energy sector is the renewable energy. Renewable energy is an alternative energy sources such as wind and solar energy to hydroelectricity and biomass fuel offer a way to power homes, vehicles or businesses without using fossil fuels. That means renewable energy sources can help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions we put into the air. Renewable energy can improve public health and environmental quality. Electricity generated from renewable energy rather than fossil fuels offer significant public health, environmental and economic benefits.

I have done and published several studies on efficiency related to the renewable energy industry. I with my research team together with one of my PhD students investigated the cost efficiency, technical efficiency and market performance. 3 papers have been published in high impact journal namely Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review and Renewable Energy. 1st paper entitled Determinants of technical efficiency in the bioenergy industry; 2nd paper entitled An empirical and forecasting analysis of the bioenergy market and the 3rd paper entitled Determinants of cost efficiency of bioenergy industry.

• What was the beginning of this idea and In what context did it grow and flourish?

Here are the ideas of what triggered me to embark into the research on efficiency in the renewable energy industry. Most of previous studies on renewable energy economic have just concentrated on how to establish a certain level of production and measured its impact on economic growth, environment and society. However, none of previous studies on energy economics embark into the study on the cost efficiency to achieve rational resource utilisation. Through this study, we would be able to identify which countries that efficient and which of them are inefficient. But that’s not all, based on this research, the industry would be able to minimize the input used and get the optimum output which they could reduce their cost. That is the novelty of this research and it is proven when out of 5 papers published from this research 3 of them managed to publish in the highly reputable journals like Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review and Renewable Energy.

• What individuals or institutions have influenced the success of this idea?

I got this idea from one of the conferences that I have attended. The conference was organized by Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (AAERE). There was one session which was discussed about the renewable energy. Since the data on renewable energy is available in European countries then I chose that region for the region to be studied. Fortunately, I got one PhD student who was really keen to take this idea for his PhD research and the PhD student was really good. Finally, we managed to complete the research and published in high reputable journals in the field of renewable energy and energy economics. The student even has finished his PhD study successfully.

• How has this achievement been reflected in the scientific community?

As I mentioned above, since we managed to complete the research successfully and the research issues were also important to be studied that make the research paper being published in many reputable journals. The journals that we published our papers are Sustainable Development, Resources Policy, Sustainability, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Renewable Energy and Journal of Cleaner Production.

• Express your personal experience in participating in the KANS scientific competition?

It was a great experienced in participating the KANS scientific competition. The organizer was really organized well the event. It was an honoured being part of KANS competition especially when I won the first prize.

• Has the KANS competition had an impact on your promotion or introduction as a researcher?

Absolutely right. The then Vice Chancellor (Professor. Datin Paduka Dr. Aini Ideris) was really impressed with my achievement. She encouraged me to apply for the promotion to full professorship as I have already fulfilled all requirement for the promotion. InsyaAllah, by this year I will be promoted to full professor.

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