KUALA LUMPUR – The Kuala Lumpur 20 (KL20) blueprint on making the capital city an artificial intelligence (AI) and technology hub will bring huge investment opportunities to the country, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said today.
He said the government took its time engaging with stakeholders on how to attract investments in AI and IT sectors.
“We have gone through discussions with stakeholders in the ecosystem for the past year to curate the policies and programmes under KL20 so there are compelling offerings to the ecosystem players,” he said at blueprint’s soft launch in Parliament today.
He also announced the KL20 Summit 2024 which will take place from April 22 to 23, 2024, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
At the summit, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will launch the KL20 Action Paper – a detailed roadmap outlining concrete measures to create convergence among key stakeholders, founders, venture capitalists, talent, incubators, and accelerators, said Rafizi.
The purpose of the summit is to showcase Malaysia’s potential as a startup-friendly country. This is especially in areas like manufacturing and automation, cleantech, agritech, and Islamic finance, he said.
“We hope the startups will be built from three key perspectives, which are the funders, founders, and talents.
“We want to create a top ecosystem where the founders around the world can bring and develop their startups here with local talents,” he said, adding that Malaysia is “open for business” in the technology field.
In order to achieve that, KL20 aims to establish an environment that is conducive to business so that Malaysia becomes a preferred location for internationally skilled individuals and high-potential, scalable start-ups, said Rafizi.
He also encouraged overseas venture capitalists to relocate to Malaysia to take part in AI here, as this will add a high level of value to the country.
“We (the government) spent the last several months building momentum overseas.
“In the next few months, we will be able to put Malaysia at higher levels after the KL20 launch,” he said.
Last November, the government said it would introduce a plan to position Malaysia as the premier hub for AI technology infrastructure in the region. – March 27, 2024