In the first decade of the Twenty-First Century, we have achieved much. IKM is regarded highly by other professional bodies and, science and technology (S&T) organisations in Malaysia. In Asia, we also ranked high among the Asian chemical societies and S&T associations. In the international arena, we are working closely with many established chemical societies such as the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and American Chemical Society (ACS), regional and international organisations such as the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS), Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and even governmental agencies such as the US State Department (USSD) and British High Commission (BHC). We are also in a number of chemistry networks such as the Asian Conference on Analytical Sciences (ASIANALYSIS), Asian Analytical Chemistry Network (AACN), Asian Core Programme on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry (ACP – CEOC), and International Symposium on Advances in Extraction Technologies (ExTech).

At home, we are highly regarded by other professional bodies, S&T organisations, universities and research and development (R&D) institutions, government departments and agencies, corporate bodies and many others. We shall continue to work closely with these organisations to promote the profession of chemistry in Malaysia and advance chemistry for the benefits of mankind.

At the public level, this is where a lot more has to be done. Chemistry, or rather chemicals, is seen badly by the general public as they perceive chemicals to be something that causes pollution, are toxic, and bad for the environment and people. This misconception on chemicals, and the wrong interpretation on the roles of chemistry, have to be addressed. It will be a major task for IKM to address this problem in the coming decade. The International Year of Chemistry (IYC) in 2011 is a key step taken by IUPAC and the international chemistry community to correctly portray chemistry as uplifting the quality of life and providing solution to the world’s major problems. We too, can use IYC 2011 to put chemistry in a correct perspective to the Malaysian public.