Malaysia and China’s Belt and Road Initiative
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December 2024
- ASEAN Technology Startup Ignite, a platform curated across Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam / full item
- Malaysia’s Solarvest partners Singapore’s Vista Contracting & Investment for rooftop and utility-scale solar projects in Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, and Cambodia / full item
- Malaysia launches National Artificial Intelligence Office, looking at government-led national digitization, and with the wider goal of regional Asia leadership in the space / full item
- Malaysia: More detail on the Penang Silicon Design @5km+ initiative, creating an interconnected ecosystem for IC design and technology firms within 5km+ radius of the Bayan Lepas Industrial Park / full item
- Malaysia: ‘Penang Silicon Design @5km+’ initiative launches, a further move to advance Malaysia in global integrated circuits design, dovetailing with the National Semiconductor Strategy / full item
“The event also highlighted the establishment of five global giants—Alchip, AMD Global Services, Celestica, Microsoft, and Monolithic Power Systems—at the Penang IC Design and Digital Park to house their new IC design and R&D operations. The presence of these industry leaders is expected to drive significant spillover effects to local start-ups, fostering knowledge transfer and sparking innovation across the sector.”
- Dubai’s Damac Group unveils plan to invest $3BN to build data centers across Southeast Asia, seeing the region as a future hub for AI and cloud services / full item
- Malaysia has recorded a staggering RM1.224 billion loss due to online crime between January and October this year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced… / full item
- ADB and Mastercard Impact Fund ink MOU to provide financing for women-led or -owned MSMEs in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam / full item
- Startup ASEAN initiative under Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Tech & Innovation is open for startup applications – submit your pitch here: / full item
- ICYMI: United Kingdom becomes the first European nation to join the Indo-Pacific’s Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc / full item
Old age poverty and active ageing in ASEAN: Trends
November 2024
- Malaysia: Rural & Regional Dev Ministry intro’s Smart Village concept to boost potential and capabilities of rural communities with technology, targeting economic development / full item
- Malaysia’s Entomal Biotech takes overall win at the Asian Entrepreneurship Award 2024 in Japan, with New Zealand’s Formus taking 2nd place / full item
- Malaysia: Putrajaya is planning to develop its own Malay large language model for use by generative artificial intelligence / full item
- Malaysia: Gov’t is considering small modular reactors as a power source, seeing SMRs as a small, safe, and more cost-effective energy option into the future / full item
- Malaysia: Plug In startup conference is set for Petaling Jaya in Kuala Lumpur, December 2nd – panels & spotlights, pitches, exhibitions & networking / full item
Malaysia: “Johor, the southern state which borders Singapore, has drawn about 50 data center projects in the last three years, including from ByteDance and Microsoft.” / full item
- Malaysia: Labuan Financial Services Authority launches Shariah-compliant blockchain plan, and tax incentives, looking for the island territory to become a leading digital financial hub / full item
- 5 Project Nexus central banks to establish Nexus Scheme Org’n managing entity for live implementations of the BIS cross-border initiative to interlink realtime payment rails / full item
- Malaysia’s second 5G network contract has been awarded to the country’s smallest operator, U Mobile, in surprise move, beating market leaders CelcomDigi and Maxis / full item
Southeast Asia’s data center growth: “The headline story will be the increasing importance of the SJB [Singapore-Johor-Batam] corridor…” / full item
- Singapore’s Nium payments platform and JP Morgan’s Kinexys boost collaboration on data supply to validate bank accounts in int’l payments to Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong / full item
Cushman & Wakefield: Asia Pacific Data Centre Construction Costs
October 2024
- Malaysia Digital Economy Corp inks MOUs with Singapore’s Ascent venture fund and Indonesia’s Central Capital Ventura, looking to boost cross-border collaboration and innovation / full item
- Malaysia: Sarawak unveils ambitious plans for electricity supply, including submarine cable to supply Singapore and peninsular Malaysia, and potentially wider ASEAN states / full item
- Malaysia: Johor State is projected to attract $4.9BN in new data center investments in 2024, offering cost benefits over neighbouring Singapore / full item
- Malaysia: EY Young Technology Professional Challenge 2024 launches, seeking Malaysian graduates and university students for team-based STEM competition / full item
- Malaysia: Khazanah sovereign wealth fund is to launch Emerging Fund Managers’ Program and Regional Fund Managers’ Initiative under National Fund-of-Funds to boost the country’s VC space / full item
- Malaysia: A quick overview of the tech-focused elements of the country’s 2024 Budget, seeing investments in AI, cybersecurity, talent development and smart city tech / full item
- Malaysia’s GHL online payments firm and Japan’s JCB International ink strategic partnership, opening JCB Cards payments to GHL merchants in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines / full item
- Malaysia: MYStartup pre-accelerator cohort 4 unveils 5 winners, working on solutions in fintech, construction, green technologies, agriculture and health-tech / full item
- China’s ByteDance, TikTok parent firm, has laid off more than 700 workers from its Malaysian unit, shifting focus towards greater use of AI in content moderation / full item
- Malaysia’s Sipjoy takes win at most recent Alibaba Cloud Startup Demo Day with digital solutions for coffee shops / full item
- Project Mandala proof-of-concept: Automating compliance procedures on cross-border financial transactions, with central banks of Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Korea participating / full item
- An overview of DEX Connex Thailand 2024, part of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation’s Digital Export facilitation programme for startups and digital businesses / full item
- Singapore’s Princeton Digital Group data centre firm acquires powered land for 500MW capacity expansion, adding new facilities in India, Malaysia and Indonesia / full item
Submarine Cable Map from TeleGeography
