MIDA Urges Investors to Engage Domestic Start-Ups To Innovate Processes And Venture New Business
Kuala Lumpur, 12 August 2021 – The Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) organised a virtual Start-up Pitching Session MIDA-Cyberview Series I/2021 to promote domestic start-ups tie-ups among industry players and active investors.
The session themed “Technology Adoption towards Industry” was a milestone collaboration between MIDA and Cyberview Malaysia to assist the local start-ups in marketing their products and services to the needs of industries and societies, initiate research-industry collaboration, converting research output into innovation and identifying the right market for investor funding.
Malaysia is well positioned as a hub for start-ups to attract the best global entrepreneurial talents to be based here. The nation had the advantage of being an English-speaking society, multicultural, with high-level tertiary education enrolment, relatively high-skilled workforce and is ranked high in global indices in terms of competitiveness and ease of doing business.
Mr. Ahmad Khairuddin bin Abdul Rahim, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Investment Development) of MIDA, in his opening address, highlighted that “In order to drive business growth and staying relevant in current norms, business leaders, including those small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) must creatively embrace innovation into their business models. A willingness to invest in innovation and shift from conventional processes is a stepping stone to build new growth engine; more so with the adoption of digital technology.”
He assured that “The Domestic Strategic Fund or DISF grant is an initiative by MIDA to support Malaysian-owned companies to move up the value chain and be more competitive in the global ecosystem. We hope that through this facilitation, Malaysian companies will not take the back seat during the pandemic, instead seize this period to revitalize their offerings and capabilities”.
Shafinaz Salim, Head of Technology Hub Development Division at Cyberview said, “Innovation, especially research and development and commercialisation (R&D&C) is fundamental for businesses to gain competitive edge and stay differentiated in today’s fast-moving, ever-evolving market. On top of MIDA’s offering, the Cyberview Living Lab programme that we offer enable businesses to leverage the city of Cyberjaya for proof of concept testing and piloting initiatives prior to the commercialisation of their solutions. Our initiatives are designed to support and nurture start-ups that are focused on value creation in today’s digital economy. In fact, some of our Cyberview Living Lab alumni continue to play a key role and actively contribute to the tech ecosystem here. As the tech hub developer for Cyberjaya, we are committed to building a sustainable, high-value launchpad for businesses that are looking to turn their ideas into viable and innovative products.”
Cyberview and MIDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in December 2020 enabling access to their respective capabilities and strengths in capitalising domestic direct investment (DDI) and foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities in Malaysia for deep technology projects and partnerships.
“We are seeing a steady evolution in the recent years with established local start-ups stepping up their game in helping businesses embark on their digital transformation journey. This space, which was previously occupied by a small handful of tech giants, is now seeing greater participation from smaller and more nimble companies offering different vertices of digital solutions and services. There are many more untapped opportunities that these companies could explore.” added Mr. Ahmad Khairuddin.
The webinar has successfully attracted more than 300 participants, including manufacturers, service providers and other potential investors. The session featured insightful presentations by start-up companies from Move Robotic, Synapse Innovation, VITA, My Conceptual Robotics, Urban Farm Tech, MHub, TrackerHero and MEDKAD in the areas of AI solutions for manufacturing industries; autonomous mobile robot technology; advanced security and building management; real-estate financial business; payment solutions; IoT monitoring and control systems; 3d printing, customized machineries, embedded systems, robotics and automation engineering services; and health mobile data management system.
Companies interested to leverage with the start-ups, may engage with the Domestic Investment Coordination Platform (DICP) Unit, MIDA through www.mida.gov.my or Cyberview officials through www.cyberview.com.my.
*****
About MIDA
MIDA is the Government’s principal promotion agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to oversee and drive investments into the manufacturing and services sectors in Malaysia. Starting operations in 1967 with a relatively small set up of 37 staff, MIDA has grown to become an active and dynamic organisation of over 700 employees. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur Sentral, MIDA today has 12 regional and 20 overseas offices. MIDA continues to be the strategic partner to businesses in seizing the opportunities arising from the technology revolution of this era. For more information, please visit www.mida.gov.my and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
About CYBERVIEW
Cyberview has been at the forefront of Malaysia’s development as a technological hub since its inception in 1996. Starting out as the landowner of Cyberjaya, it has grown from strength to strength, until maturing into its current role as the tech hub developer of Cyberjaya. For more information, please visit http://www.cyberview.com.my.
Media contacts:
MIDA
Manjit Kaur Balkar Singh (Ms)
Email: [email protected] | Tel.: +603 2267 3509
CYBERVIEW
Nadia Azmi (Ms.)
Email: [email protected] | Tel.: +03-8315 6009
