Over the years, Sunway has become a testbed of innovation to generate new technological outcomes in urban farming, healthcare, accessible education and financial technology.
This is ever more evident in Sunway’s focus on six key verticals, namely, smart cities, edutech, digital health, agri-food tech, e-commerce and fintech through its innovation arm, Sunway Innovation Labs (Sunway iLabs).
With the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) informing its business strategies and direction, Sunway has built a thriving, integrated and sustainable living lab in the form of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, their flagship smart city.
Building An Urban Future
In alignment with the nation’s digital transformation efforts, Sunway aims to ensure that Sunway City’s digital infrastructure is equipped with the latest technological solutions, such as 5G wireless network technology – crucial in enabling connected devices to communicate with one another, making innovations such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and machine-to-machine communications seamless.
To harness 5G and its benefits, the Group has teamed up with one of the largest mobile operators in Malaysia, Celcom Axiata, and Huawei, the largest telecommunications infrastructure and smartphone manufacturer in the world.
Advancing The Country’s Digital Talent
Being technologically advanced is important – but the ecosystem can only thrive if the talent pool is robust. Hence under its Edutech arm, the launch of 42KL last year marked another milestone of its commitment to advance digital talent. Sunway Group Chief Innovation Officer and Sunway iLabs Director, Matt van Leeuwen says 42KL uses project-based learning methods throughout the curriculum, where students work to develop fundamental technical competencies and adaptability skills necessary for integration into the digital workforce.
The school operates on zero tuition fees, zero traditional classrooms and zero teachers, while its curriculum is based on peer-to-peer learning aiming to develop problem solving as well as self-learning skills. With the absence of fees, 42KL offers equal educational opportunities to all Malaysians, regardless of their socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. As of March 2021, almost half of the participating students hail from families within the B40 income group.
Promoting Financial Inclusion
As part of Sunway’s ambition to promote financial inclusion for the Malaysian workforce – in alignment with the 10th UN-SDG to reduce inequality within and among countries – Sunway ventured into fintech through its acquisition of a majority stake in credit reporting agency Credit Bureau Malaysia last year.
“SMEs are one of the most important catalysts of our economic growth and contribute almost 40% to the nation’s gross domestic product. We see considerable potential in this segment, particularly in finance-related services,” says Sunway Group President Tan Sri Chew Chee Kin.
In its commitment to fintech, Sunway launched its corporate venture capital fund Sun SEA Capital in 2018, enabling it to focus on startups. Additionally, its first remittance service provider, Sunway Money, which helps customers send money abroad through innovative fintech in partnership with FPX.
Sunway is also among the leading contenders for a digital bank license offered by Bank Negara Malaysia, and attaining this license will aid towards promoting the Group’s ambition of financial inclusion for the underserved and under-banked segment.
Urban Farming
Another aspect of sustainable living is the foray into agriculture through Sunway XFarms, a skills-building hub for urban farming professionals, tech companies, researchers, and young talents to collaborate and create solutions for agri-food technology – addressing issues in food security. With Sunway Property among its first partners, the project seeks to nourish communities with fresh produce grown in these farms.
Digitalising Malaysia’s Healthcare Offering
Extending digital innovation into healthcare, the Group’s premier medical facility Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) recognises that accessibility to healthcare must go beyond the presence of brick and mortar and into the digital space.
With the rise of telehealth, SMC launched the country’s first dedicated 24-hour Telemedicine Command Centre, bringing telemedicine services to patients in the comforts of their home.
To spark joy and smiles around the hospital are four new BellaBots. Being the first of its kind, the ‘cat-like’ robots officially started operating in August 2021 to assist in food deliveries at paediatric wards. Young patients also celebrate their birthdays with BellaBot as it delivers cakes with an entertaining song to warm hearts on their special day. BellaBots are fluent in two languages; English and Mandarin, and acts as a Lobby Ambassadors to help visitors find their way around the hospital.
Meanwhile, to enhance safety measures during the Movement Control Order, SMC collaborated with Sunway iLabs to build a contactless COVID-19 Testing Pod to enable healthcare workers to conduct safe testing for suspected cases.
Living up to its ideals, Sunway is testament to the countless possibilities of digital transformation addressing the needs of our communities in an efficient yet sustainable manner.
