KUALA LUMPUR: Logistics services company, DHL launched the first DHL Applied Analytics (DAA) Hub in Medini 6, Iskandar Puteri, Johor today through a collaboration with Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB).
The DAA Hub is DHL's first dedicated office outside of Singapore, which aims to host business development and networking meetings to ideate, incubate and create cutting-edge analytics projects for the company's clients and corporations based in Iskandar Malaysia.
The hub is also the third DHL establishment in Medini after the Global Centre of Excellence (for Innovation) opened its doors in 2018. In addition, the DHL Global Forwarding began operating in Medini 9 in 2021.
IIB president and chief executive officer Datuk Ir Khairil Anwar Ahmad said the establishment of the DAA Hub in Medini is a missing piece in the puzzle in further developing the business ecosystem in Iskandar Puteri.
"As data is the source of value in the global economy, DHL will be placing experienced data scientists at the hub to help train and develop local talents from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) while providing data analytics solutions for their clients," he said in a statement today.
This will further increase the 5,000 jobs created since IIB's inception in 2006. We are delighted to establish a platform to provide our local talents with exposure and training in data analysis which is crucial for digital ecosystem building in Medini", said
Khairil said IIB is determined to ensure Iskandar Puteri remain as an attractive investment location for a diverse range of sectors despite the uncertainties brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that the establishment of the DAA Hub is reflective of DHL's support to meet the region's growth in demand for best-in-class supply chain analytics solutions while allowing the company to leverage the strengths of Iskandar Malaysia to be closer to its customers in Malaysia.
He said the IIB-DHL collaboration seeks to contribute to IIB's vision to build an inclusive and sustainable future metropolis.
The setting up of this hub also involves the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) and UTM as partners to the collaboration to contribute towards Medini becoming a key digital and innovation centre.
He said the hub would also enable best-in-class analytics talent to work on advanced analytics offerings for their clients.
DHL's data scientists would be housed at the DAA Hub to provide internship programmes for UTM students as part of the data analytics talent development initiatives within Iskandar Malaysia.
It will also act as a platform to provide training and exposure in data analysis among members of the local community, which is crucial for digital ecosystem building within the 2,230-acre Medini township, the Johor Digital Hub.
The DAA Hub targets to produce new talent in data analytics in Iskandar Puteri annually via the internship programme with UTM.
IIB said UTM would also explore commercial projects and hosting joint events, aside from the internship programme and faculty attachment.
It said the hub was large enough to accommodate eight to 10 persons, consisting of faculty members and interns from Malaysia's academic institutions to work on global and regional projects.
Other plans include placing data scientists from the DAA team Singapore in the Medini Hub.