PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MGCC) and Digital Penang have unveiled Automation Valley Malaysia (AVM), aimed at facilitating collaboration and knowledge transfer amongst the automation community in Malaysia.
MGCC CEO Daniel Bernbeck said that the collaboration came about because both parties had identified a skills gap in the market.
“In the age of automation, Malaysia’s job outlook is ultimately promising but the future of work will create a new need for skills and long-term learning in every part of the workforce,” he told the media during the virtual soft launch of AVM today.
“Malaysia is vulnerable to disruption due to its high concentration of labour-intensive manufacturing and service jobs. Access to digitally savvy talent is fast becoming a critical component for businesses as more enterprises seek to pivot to the cloud and transform digitally.”
However, Bernbeck pointed out that Malaysia’s severe shortage in digital proficient talents may potentially hamper its growth.
Digital Penang CEO Tony Yeoh concurred and elaborated that the raison d’etre of the platform is to facilitate knowledge sharing.
“For experts to share their experience and to have case studies where people can see how it has been done and for them to get onboard this journey of digitalisation,” Yeoh stated.
He opined that another stumbling block for automation adoption in Malaysia is to change the mindset of CEOs and founders to get them to embrace technology and understand that industrial revolution (IR4.0) is real.
The AVM works on a membership basis whereby businesses could liaise with one another via the online community as well as offline events and workshops relating to automation.
It also offers businesses the opportunity to post tenders to look for automation solutions relating to their business or project and also offer their automation solutions to other members of the platform.
Yeoh stated that the platform came to be during the pandemic last year, when it presented a concept where corporates and businesses can post a project and challenge people to look for solutions and innovations to the problem they had to the German chamber.
“The idea was a project challenge to look for innovation from startups, based on the concept of bringing together problem owners and problem solvers, was the original idea of the marketplace in AVM.”
MGCC deputy executive director Eva Langerbeck elaborated prior to the presentation it had an idea for a platform where likeminded people can come together and network.
“But we found there is a need to make it bigger and more ambitious, especially in light of the pandemic and supply chain challenges,” she said.
“Then Digital Penang came along and they already had an online platform, we thought it was a great foundation and we should explore and develop it further.”
The launch was also attended by Penang state exco for domestic & international trade, consumer affairs & entrepreneurship development Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain.
“We are always looking to strengthen our relationship with German and European companies. With this platform companies from both countries and leverage on each other’s strength.”
He highlighted that Penang has always proven its resilience as the destination of choice for investments despite the Covid-19 pandemic, as the state had registered a record breaking RM76.2 billion total approved manufacturing investment in 2021, compared to RM14.1 billion in 2020 and RM16 billion in 2019.
