Cyberjaya, 27 November 2020, The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), a government agency under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia and iFLYTEK Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (002230.SZ) a well-known intelligent speech and artificial intelligence (AI) publicly listed company in the Asia-Pacific Region have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly build an AI Innovation centre and to broaden opportunities in investment as well as facilitating cross-border cooperation between both countries for the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI).
Both parties welcomed the collaboration through a virtual signing ceremony held in the presence of the Malaysia China Business Council IR4.0 & Technology Committee’s Chairman, Dato Ir Fong, Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA)’s Director of Foreign Investment Promotion Division, En. Sikh Shamsul Ibrahim bin Sikh Abdul Majid, Malaysian Chamber of Commerce in China (MAYCHAM CHINA)’s Chairman Mr. Wil Fung, China Entrepreneurs Association in Malaysia(PUCM) ’s President Dato’ Keith Li and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Vice President of Investment Development Mr. Hew Wee Choong.
MDEC as the lead agency in Malaysia driving the national digital economy will collaborate closely with iFLYTEK to establish its AI Innovation Centre over the next three years, further establishing Malaysia as the heart of digital ASEAN.
The MoU will see collaboration between both parties on several areas of mutual interest including facilitating knowledge exchanges, joint promotions as well as enhance the visibility of both Malaysia and China to further develop and promote the digital economy ecosystem in both countries.
MDEC is committed to ensuring Malaysia is firmly established as the heart of digital ASEAN and a regional digital powerhouse, launching global champions to lead Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). 4IR technologies such as AI will enable more digitally-powered local businesses and further propel Malaysia’s digital transformation initiative towards shared prosperity for all.
“MDEC hopes that through this cooperation with AI tech giant iFLYTEK, MDEC can further strengthen the cooperation between Malaysian enterprises and institutions with iFLYTEK to form a win-win partnership. This form of industry partnership catalyzes the local AI ecosystem and helps the digital transformation of smart education and smart healthcare sector,” said Dato’ Ng Wan Peng, Chief Operating Officer of MDEC.
“Signing of this MoU is a big breakthrough whereby by using the AI Innovation Centre as a platform, iFLYTEK will be able to have better access of Malaysia’s digital economy ecosystem, and at the same time offers greater opportunities for us to collaborate with local industries. This has also marked the starting of iFLYTEK’s expansion journey to the ASEAN market, which is also one of iFLYTEK’s key markets in their global expansion plan,” said iFLYTEK’s Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Mr. Duan Da Wei.
iFLYTEK will work closely with MDEC to connect with digital economy industry stakeholders to explore cooperation in the AI field, including but not limited to smart cities, education, healthcare, government and other possible fields. iFLYTEK will also bring in their industry experts and researchers to Malaysia for knowledge exchange, talent development as well as research and development (R&D) collaboration between the two countries. This is also aligned with MDEC’s direction to spur Malaysia’s digital transformation journey by accelerating the growth of digitally-skilled Malaysians, digitally-powered businesses and digital investments.
In Malaysia, iFLYTEK has not only made strategic collaboration in regards to their technological products but the company has a Malaysian entity called Huaxia Technology Sdn. Bhd., an exclusive distributor of iFLYTEK’s translator solutions, and at the same time will be leading the Southeast Asia expansion plan for iFLYTEK through its AI Innovation Centre in Malaysia.
