Malaysia is building its future — and it begins in Johor. Ibrahim Technopolis (IBTEC) is redefining how nations design cities for innovation, sustainability, and growth. Positioned in the Iskandar region, IBTEC fuses digital infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced industries to power a connected economy. This session explores how Malaysia is transforming vision into execution, turning ambition into architecture and technology into opportunity. Inside IBTEC lies a blueprint for what it takes to build not just a smart city, but a smart nation.

Hosted by: Johor Corporation

Lunch Strategy I - The Making of a Smart Nation: Inside Ibrahim Technopolis (IBTEC)

Conferences

We're going to be learning about a new smart city development taking shape in the new Johor Singapore Special Economic Zone and hopefully you took in some of the panels and discussions earlier on today where we had a bit of a deeper insight into what's happening in that in that part of the world. Very exciting developments, and I think this that we're going to hear about today is the is the cherry on top of the cake. It's called the Ibrahim Technopolis, and when completed, it will become a master. A planned township spanning over 7000 acres. It will also be Southeast Asia's first circular city. So I'd like to take a moment to thank our host for this session, Johor Corporation, and in just a moment you'll hear from Datok Mahir Aziz, director of patient capital at Johor Corporation and group managing director of Johor Capital Group. So with that, please join me in welcoming Daok to the stage. Daok, thank you. Oh, OK. Do anything. OK, smima Sar Malekum Moratalakato. Thanks, uh, Andy for the introduction and also the mic as well. Uh, again, um, basically, I'm standing here, I think I'm selling across the room as well, um, just, um, to share a bit, I know the screen is mostly on that side, um, so you may have to somewhat lean over to see what we are presenting, but the, the whole idea is to at least articulate and elaborate if, if I may. Uh, some of the points that um you've heard from Wabi Lee this morning very much speaking and itemizing some of the things that we are looking at, uh, from a Johor perspective and also Malaysia perspective, uh, with regards to the special economic zone that we have with Singapore and just before lunch, uh, that. Also elaborating even further in the role of not only Johor Corporation, but the development of Ibrahim taking our place as a venue, as a platform, as a place for us to look at the convergence of an ecosystem that we are trying to build. You've heard since morning, uh, I think the idea of sandboxing, test bedding. Having the right kind of ingredients, uh, in, in building an ecosystem that is supposed and meant to be not only sustainable, but thriving as we address um some of the issues and challenges uh uh on various platforms uh across the aspect of geopolitical challenges, economic. mandate that we carry at JOB and addressing some of the newer things that we are trying to build and we build more solutions, especially along along the lines of artificial intelligence as we build uh more adoption, we go through digital transformation as well. As a summary, I think we look at the Johor, Johor Singapore Special Economic zone. I think it's an area where the momentum for us to actually leverage on an area uh that, that needs, that, that needs to build, that can create uh more uh I think areas for us to be more strategic. And, and be able to actually position itself uh to, to look at not only hosting some of these uh companies, corporations, organizations, academic institutions and all that. Those would be this uh place where we look at uh the entire zone, uh, special economic zone for these areas. We believe that in any development, you need a set of catalytic projects and this is what and why it is very, very important. It is anchored as one of the nine flagship zones within uh Johor, Singapore. Special economic zone, we do have, we heard Wabi Lee spoke about the 11 sectors that we're looking at that. 9 of those sectors are supposed to be happening inside uh IEC itself. So it is not so much about the infrastructure, but there's a lot more at play, which I'll go through in a bit. From a physical point of view, a tech is built across 9 sectors, as we mentioned. Um, I think the numbers of more than 7290 acres is what we are looking at. Definitely it's something massive that we are building, and again, if we look at how we want to be able to build this, we have to start somewhere. So Yibi Lee talked about how Johor basically capitalized on the opportunities that were made available primarily because of certain decisions made by our neighbors down south in Singapore uh with regards to the moratorium, and again, we were there. Ready to actually accept and ready to work together. I have in various forms or rather in my previous life as well has spoken about building ecosystems and about building this vis a vis the ASEAN neighbors that we have. Malaysia cannot. And we will not be able to become Singapore overnight. There's no way that we can move the financial capital to Malaysia and say that, OK, forget Singapore and just build in Malaysia. It doesn't work like that. We obviously cannot become Indonesia overnight or Thailand as well that we can just multiply and say that I have the mass market for you to actually do that, but there's a place for us to actually do this, and we see Itech as one of the uh the best platform. Uh, for, for, for us to be able to see how we can help a more and highly digitalized industries in the form of logistics, healthcare, uh, and others as well, and we start, we started to build this from the data center ecosystem that we have. So 10% roughly. Of what we envision to have. And aspire to actually develop is already in place. Whybili talked about more than 10 data centers currently operating and we are getting more uh input and more I think committed investments. We hope to be able to achieve in the next year or so. The ecosystem that we talked about, and I tell you why this is important because there's always a place for everyone, not only in this room, but also outside there to be able to see there's a screen right behind you just in case. I know you're straining your neck to actually see it, but uh as far as uh ecosystems that we talked about and that I talked about innovation corridor. Activities such as regulatory sandbox, adoption of certain solutions, and also the solutions that we want to be able to build. That is a physical platform that we're trying to build right there at Ibrahim Technopolis and a platform that we hope to be able to begin now. And this is a platform where connectivity, collaboration would be some of those points that we want to be able to talk about. I just came back from Beijing yesterday basically presenting not only, uh, I think the aspect of JCOB, but very much on how China is building a proper AI ecosystem together with ASEAN stemming from their involvement and more active participation with ASEAN economies as well. I think the excitement is all there and I actually Really look at how they are planning, uh, uh, I think the ecosystem that they are looking at, the application of AI in not only in main industries, but rather on the research side, and this is expediting activities that they are doing now, looking at building new solutions and very importantly, looking at building it together with the ASEAN countries, starting, uh, starting with both Singapore and also Malaysia. Other aspect that we are also looking at, again, we meet a lot of people, somebody asked me outside, whom have you met so far, uh, and who who else do you plan to meet as well. Uh, I think we spoke about meeting just about anyone because again, the role of whether you're providing or generating data, you're developing infrastructure, you're deploying that currently with us. And you are helping us in building the right kind of governance. Building without control is I think a recipe for disaster, but too much control very early on, especially as we talked about AI is again impeding, I think the growth of this. I was at the uh Geneva uh AI forum last year. You can see the discussion at the top floors talking about regulations and all that. And the ground floor who was talking about, OK, let's go and do this and explore all the things. You can really cut the tension. With a butter knife because they couldn't agree on that, but yet we know that AI is this big trend that is driving digital, that is driving a lot more projects, talent development, and SMEs as we see it. So again, this will be an area as we can see if tech. Uh, that we developed, uh, of course, uh, I have my colleagues led by Dr. Akma and also John at the back who are, uh, actually ready uh to discuss in more details with you guys individually in here or uh outside of this event to talk about other areas that we want to be able to do together and collaborate as well. As far as incentives, and before I close this, this is again commitment so far by the federal and state governments to look at tax, uh, both on the incentive sites and also exemptions. There's also because of the national energy transition roadmap, we are providing the renewable energy benefits and lastly, we are also at Jacob site. Together with our stakeholders, building the right kind of infrastructure that we feel is needed for us to be able to do that. We can talk about AI until next week, but without the right infrastructure, the right investments, not only on the physical infrastructure, but the soft part which is talent and also governance and policies, this will not happen. So again, thank you very much for your attention. uh, Mr. John Ng and the rest of the team will be in the Kada room, uh, to entertain any additional questions that you may have besides uh the rest of the Jacob team that we have here today. Thank you very much. The human mind is phenomenal. OK, I was too quick. I wanted to play this. So OK, I'll leave you with the video. Machines that transformed.