Page 6 - Berita Sunway - Issue 71

Features

POWERING A

SMART AND

SUSTAINABLE CITY

With its focus on talent development, funding
and testing, Sunway iLabs plays a pivotal role in
the growth of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur as a
smart sustainable city.

hat makes a smart city? In an article for the World
Economic Forum, Howard Elias, president of
Wservices and digital at Dell Technologies, described
smart cities as “committed to improving the provision and
development of urban services using digital technology”.

For Sunway Group chief innovation officer Matthijs van
Leeuwen, talent is key to ensure the viability of a smart city as
it continues to evolve.

“Smart cities are not just about technology. To build one,
you need a foundation. At Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, there
is a diversity of different businesses as well as educational
institutions such as universities – these are important in
realising the vision of a smart city, as you need people to
implement and run the technology,” said van Leeuwen,
who is also director of the non-profit start-up incubator and
accelerator Sunway iLabs.

Launched in 2017, Sunway iLabs is a collaborative initiative
of Sunway Group, Sunway University and Sunway Ventures
– the Group’s corporate venture capital arm. Sunway iLabs
aims to foster entrepreneurship and stimulate market-driven
innovations.

“We run programmes designed to build talent and solve
different problem statements using the design thinking
approach. These include hackathons and accelerator
programmes revolving around smart city solutions,” said
van Leeuwen.

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