Cited as the one of the key technology areas that will facilitate the nation's growth in agriculture, logistics, healthcare and advanced manufacturing, Internet of Things (IoT) takes centrestage at Malaysia IoT Week, which starts today.
Held at MIMOS Berhad, the opening ceremony was graced by the presence of Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau.
"Implemented strategically, IoT is expected to contribute RM9.5 billion to Malaysia's GNI by 2020 and generate income of RM42.5 billion by 2025.
“IoT is expected to create more than 14,000 new high skilled jobs and more than 200 SME companies are expected to benefit from IoT by 2020," says Madius.
Also present at the opening ceremony were Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) deputy secretary-general (Policy), Dato' Dr Mohd Azhar Hj Yahaya, Mosti deputy secretary-general (Science) Dr Zulkifli Mohamed Hashim and MIMOS Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah.
In conjunction with IoT Week, Madius also launched the Big Data IoT Technology Accelerator (BITX) Lab, which has been designed to deliver end-to-end services for developing IoT applications and services.
"The lab should serve as a technology reference centre and facilitate open innovation activities among industries, academia and government research institutions,” said Abdul Wahab.
He further elaborates that the BITX Lab is equipped for developing and testing products and services within the area of IoT in order to enable new innovations go to the market faster.
The BITX facility offers three labs focusing on smart devices, application and infrastructure. Abdul Wahab reveals that the application lab has already found a platinum partner, Microsoft while the infrastructure lab's platinum partner is Huawei.
Themed 'Building Industry Ecosystem', the opening day of IoT Week puts forth the Scientific Symposium and Industry Roundtable, the latter a specific session for syndicating the National IoT Plan.
Another highlight event for the week is a two-day ASEAN IoT innovation Forum, which will take place at Istana Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on 25 and 26 August, 2015. More information on IoT Week is available at www.iotweek.my.