SUBANG JAYA: The Finance Ministry (MoF) will issue a request for proposal (RFP) by the end of this week for parties interested in participating in the Bandar Malaysia project, said its Secretary-General, Tan Sri Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
Irwan, who is Chairman of TRX City Sdn Bhd and Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd, said under the RFP, the MoF would set new criteria and conditions for companies to participate.
"There are already interested parties registering their interest, but we are releasing the RFP with certain conditions this time around, such as renowned companies with much experience or may be those in the Fortune 500 list," he told reporters at the launch of the inaugural ColossusINNO2017 competition here today.
He said it had not been yet determined as to how long the RFP process would take before a decision on the parties that can participate.
As for the Budget 2018, he said the MoF had already established teams to collect data, undertake analysis and come up with strategies.
The budget will be tabled in Parliament on Oct 27 this year.
Irwan said one area to be emphasised is entrepreneurship and innovation, whereby a sizeable amount would be allocated to various entities driving the agenda, as both are key drivers of economic growth and provider of jobs for the future.
Meanwhile, the Global Entrepreneurship Movement (GEM) ColossusINNO2017 competition is targeted at attracting 1,000 submissions from entrepreneurs across the world with a grand prize of US$100,000. GEM, a non-profit organisation was founded by Irwan, who is currently its patron.
It was formed to democratise entrepreneurship with the aim of making innovation and entrepreneurship ubiquitous.
GEM president Dash Dhakshinamoorthy said the ColossusINNO2017 competition was inaugurated to inspire breakthrough thinking among entrepreneurs to identify and build ventures that would result in providing solutions to solve regional problems in ASEAN like poverty, governance, education, health or environment.
He said participation is open to all entrepreneurs globally and GEM would be working with a Silicon-Valley based competition platform, You Noodle, to be its competition engine.
He added the platform would also help engage with judges to make the selection independently, based on the parameters set together with global requirements.
The panel of judges will comprise world class leaders and experts.
The submission date for the competition is from June 21 to end-October, followed by an announcement of the finalists in November. The winner will be announced at the GE Community 2017 event on Dec 5- 6 this year. -- BERNAMA