The Selangor Smart City & Digital Economy Convention is back for its fourth edition this year. Themed Empowering Youths With Tomorrow’s Innovation, the conference comprised four parts that ran concurrently from 11th to 13th October 2019 at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) in Kuala Lumpur.
Ai, 5G, & E-wallet Conference
The first segment was the AI, 5G, & E–wallet Conference.
“This is solely a technology event which will focus on what’s next for smart city. Smart city is a result of AI, 5G and e-Commerce technologies, therefore the event will discuss how these technologies will improve our quality of life and provide new business opportunities,” says Yong Kai Ping, Chief Executive Officer of Selangor Information Technology and e-Commerce Council (SITEC).
“The topic is timely as the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan’s (NFCP) impending rollout of 5G networks in the nation is set to speed up the services on the cloud and promises significant breakthroughs in communications,” he adds.
The event also highlighted Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology as it allows for faster data analysis and learning. Experts and professionals invited to the conference include MCMC Chairman Al-Ishsal Ishak, who delivered a keynote on how the NFCP will drive the deployment of 5G in Malaysia.
A panel of leaders and executives from major AI-related industries highlighted the use of the technology. These included Gax MD, a company that offers digital investment management service which uses AI to optimise portfolios of each investor, and CanBot of China, well known for building AI robots for retail as well as educational purposes.
As for the E-wallet segment, 7 CEOs and executives from major E-wallets and online payment service providers including TnG Digital, Boost, Razer Fintech, FPX, Ipay88, Kiple and Wavpay put forth their thoughts on the topic in two panels titled “What is the future of the Great E-wallet War” and “How Cashless is Malaysia right now?”.
International Anime And Gaming Festival
The second was the International Anime and Gaming Festival. This segment, officiated by the Youth and Sports Minister, saw top China and Malaysian Gaming studios sharing about the future of the gaming industry.
“Besides E–commerce start–ups, gaming is the rising star in Southeast Asia that is gaining quick popularity and has gained recognition in major sports events such as SUKMA and ASEAN as one of its sporting events.
“Out of the 32 million population, 18 million are online shoppers and 14 million are gamers. These figures show us that although the E–commerce trend is rising, gaming is catching fast in Malaysia, which is a reflection of the situation in Southeast Asia as well. Despite being the late comer in Gaming and E–commerce industry compared to China, we are fast catching up,” says a proud Yong.
Shedding light on the current scenario of gaming industry, he says that the gaming industry is not limited to software alone but includes gaming-related products such as gaming chairs or mouse, which is mostly sold via online platforms.
“Gaming and E–commerce are inter-related as some of the gaming companies do not have an outlet, their products, be it physical or virtual, are sold online.”
He explains further saying: “Malaysia’s strength lies in soft technology, we have evolved to produce our own animation such as Upin-Ipin, Ajen Ali and the likes of it. The potential of gaming industry is very huge, as the market in Southeast Asia is worth USD4.6 billion, of which Malaysia’s share is USD100 million.
The Convention comprised of the One Belt One Road Anime & Gaming Summit, which discussed about mobile games and augmented reality trends in China, Southeast Asia’s gaming market landscape and professional careers in the E-sports Industry and E-sports competitions involving simulation and virtual games as well as an Asian anime cultural symposium. 
For the Southeast Asian F1 Virtual Racing competition, 12 Southeast Asian and 4 Malaysian racers competed with each other for a total of 8 rounds. Participants raced in virtual race-tracks including Monte-Carlo, Shanghai and Sepang circuits. The race champion took home RM5,000 cash award while 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up received RM3,000 and RM1,000 each respectively.
The third segment was the Malaysia Top E-commerce Merchant Awards 2019, which was a competition of young entrepreneurs whose businesses are not more than three years old but has sales of more than RM50,000 per month or orders more than 200 per month. The competition was judged based on sales results and the creativity of their sales campaign. Judges for the competition were from SITEC, MDec, Magic, Cradle, Pikom and Internet Alliance. The competition ran for three weeks beginning in July.
“Last year 120 merchants who participated generated RM27 million in sales. This year we are targeting the same number of participants, if not more,” Yong says enthusiastically.
Startup and Equity Crowdfunding Pitching Day
The last segment of the Selangor Smart City and Digital Convention was the Startup and Equity Crowdfunding Pitching Day.
To sum it all, Yong says, “Many industries in our country are not digitised yet. To support the nations aspiration of becoming a digital economy, eventually all industries need to swallow the bitter pill. SITEC is working with SMEs and industry players to ease the transition toward digitisation and help these organisations keep up with the technological trends in other countries.”
