Selangor Journal

SMART SELANGOR VISION 2025

By Batrisyia Jay

KUALA LUMPUR – Asia’s largest smart city event, the Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention 2018 (SDEC 2018) saw over 200 exhibitors and 8,000 attendees at its third iteration of the international convention.

Co-organised by the Selangor Information Technology & E-Commerce Council (SITEC), Menteri Besar Incorporated Selangor (MBI), Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU), and Invest Selangor Berhad, the Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention was part of the Selangor International Business Summit 2018, and an 8-in-1 event covering three themes – Smart Manufacturing, Retail Revolution, and Startup Fest.

The three-day convention was held at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition centre (MITEC) from 13 September 2018 to 15 September 2018.

Collaborative Roundtable

“One of the key focus this year is the National Mayor Roundtable,” said Dato’ Teng Chang Khim, Selangor State Executive Councillor (EXCO) for Investment, Industry and Commerce and SME at the opening of the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention 2018.

“We are expecting to see over 150 mayors and leaders of local councils in Malaysia at this special roundtable, which aims to bring together key council leaders and their teams from Malaysian cities in a bid to foster openness, knowledge transfer and collaborative opportunities,” he said.

The nation’s first ever National Mayor Smart City Roundtable was officiated on the first day of the convention by the deputy minister of Housing and Local Government, Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad, and attended by over 150 local council mayors and officers in a bid to foster openness, knowledge transfer and collaborative opportunities.

“We have invited overseas and local experts to share adopted solutions so as to better facilitate local stakeholders to identify ways to augment existing solutions to suit the unique needs of their respective Malaysian cities,” said Raja Bahrin during his Mayor Roundtable keynote speech in MITEC, Kuala Lumpur.

The roundtable explored topics of traffic and mobility; communications and connectivity; and smart waste management, bringing together global and regional experts from UK, China, Indonesia and France, who lead discussions with local councils to explore existing solutions and fine tune them within a Malaysian context.

“We are hopeful that our mayors and local councils will be able to appreciate the various perspectives put forward and emerge from this session with greater insights and possibly concrete solutions to drive smarter Malaysian cities within these three areas,” said Raja Bahrin.

Progression of a Smart Nation

According to Y. M. Raja Shahreen Bin Raja Othman, CEO of Menteri Besar Selangor Incorporated (MBI), building a Smarter nation is a journey requiring sustained effort by multiple parties.
“Events such as this National Mayor roundtable are but one of the first steps we can take by sharing our ideals, ideas, technology, and knowledge,” said Raja Shahreen.

He added that the State Government is confident that Smart Selangor will not only be successful in its mission, but to also be the model for future development, encouraging innovative research as well as technology entrepreneurship in Malaysia and the region.

Raja Shahreen in his keynote speech at the opening of the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention 2018 in MITEC, Kuala Lumpur on 13 September 2018 mentioned that attaining the Smart Selangor Vision 2025 is a daunting mission which has never been fully practiced anywhere in the world that is to transform a whole state with varying degrees of development into one regional smart state.

“Since its inception, a number of programs and activities have been successfully launched and planned, and we are moving step by step towards achieving Smart Selangor’s Vision 2025,” he said.

Informative Interactions

Apart from B2C (Business to consumer) interactions, exhibitors also had the chance to have B2B (Business to business) interactions with other fellow exhibitors throughout the three-day convention.
“We’ve received a number of enquiries these past few days from visitors and exhibitioners alike who will hopefully turn into our project customers in the future,” says Goay Heow Khoon, Senior Specialist at Axiata Business Services (Xpand).

One of the main sponsors for the event, Axiata Business Services Sdn. Bhd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata), one of Asia’s largest telecommunications groups in Asean and South Asia.

Operating under the brand “Xpand”, the company is focused on providing new and cutting-edge enterprise communications solutions to the market of B2B and B2C companies across multiple industries.

“There is no flagship product in the company as we see each of our solution as a prime product that will suit the needs of different customers, such as the city and local councils,” says Goay.

Axiata Xpand’s portfolio of services include enterprise and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions, global communication products, international wholesale services as well as digital services.

“The decision to become one the sponsors is in continuity from last year’s convention as we were one of the main sponsors then,” explained Azman Ismail, product director at Atilze Digital Sdn. Bhd.

One of the exhibitors and main sponsors of the Selangor Smart City and Digital Economy Convention 2018, Atilze is the high technology Internet of Things (IoT) venture of Yen Global Berhad, a company listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, the securities exchange of Malaysia.

The company supplies IoT and connected objects hardware devices, cloud-based data-driven applications and services for Connected Cars and solutions built on Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN).

“We are creating an ecosystem for us to become a meaningful IoT provider in the industry,” says Azman.
According to Azman, the convention is a bridge for start-up companies to reach out to the government, industry players and customers to come on board.

“I particularly find the Mayor Smart City Roundtable a useful session as we had more fruitful conversations in a closer proximity with the government stake holders compared to the one held last year,” says Azman.

World-class Forums and Exhibitions

Aside from free entry to the international exhibition featuring global tech leaders such as China Academy of Electronic and Information Technology (CAEIT), Taiwan AI Lab, Huawei, Microsoft, Axiata, German Malaysia Institute (GMI), MaGIC, and more, it also included a Smart City forum and Startup Forum for attendees too.

Top international city leaders converged to explore strategic approaches for building smart cities in the city discussion session of the Smart City forum, with speakers from smart cities in China and Indonesia, together with local Cyberjaya. Other topics included AI, fintech, blockchain, machine learning, and Industrial Revolution 4.0, with both local and international speakers.

The convention also showcased the 10 best startups nurtured from the Selangor Accelerator Program (SAP) 2018 in the SAP Demo Day, where the top five proceeded to the Selangor International Pitch (SIP) on 14 September, alongside other top APAC startups.

Building an E-commerce Platform

Day two on 14 September 2018 saw the highly anticipated Alibaba-Taobao University Global Course tackling cross-border e-commerce, as well as the intense Selangor International Pitch (SIP), which succeeded in bringing the best startups around APAC to have a live, on-stage pitching battle for the grand prize of RM100,000.

In an exclusive interview with the Selangor Journal team, Dato’ Teng said this year’s Smart City Convention is the best that they have ever done.

“We will continue our efforts to attract more SME’s and youngsters to get involved with innovations, the state’s upcoming smart city and the digital economy as this is one of the ways we can move forward,” said Dato’ Teng.

“I believe the state government will give us the support by giving more opportunities and incentives to assist our setups and to ensure we have achieved the status of a regional smart state in the shortest time possible,” he added.

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