It was the convergence of innovative minds with a common purpose of converting impact driven concepts into actions, to shake up the status quo, and to enrich societies through positive and innovative discussions to inspire a global reset and empower technology for positive results at a high-powered event.
The Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI) two-day international I-Nation 2022 conference brought this to reality recently under the theme ‘Global Reset: Tech for Impact’.
Holding true to its theme, MRANTI helmed I-Nation under aims of advancing knowledge on technology innovations, and get into positive discussion of its impact on the future economy while breaking the boundaries of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) by building conversations on 4IR and in line with the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals.
MRANTI’s I-Nation aims to accelerate commercialisation of R&D with 4IR at the core and creating an experience of MRANTI Park’s state of the art integrated infrastructure and facilities to enable innovations as I-Nation would create a conversation with bold ideas and positive, forward-thinking discourse to inspire others through the sharing of powerful insights.
This aim is achieved by allowing participating members to scale up through knowledge sharing of past, current and future global technological achievements and have a conversation about how those achievements can affect the economy in the future.
Speaking at the agency’s 686-acre 4IR-Ready Park in Bukit Jalil, MRANTI Group Chief Executive Officer Dzuleira Abu Bakar said: “I-Nation is to foster a mindset and cultivate a spirit of collaboration to position ideas to impact through the sharing of knowledge and best practices. This can be done by mobilising key stakeholders to accelerate the commercialisation of R&D projects, innovations, solutions which can find a balance or reset and recalibrate for positive impact.”
She drew refences to the world’s per capita GDP, over the next two or three decades is on the trajectory of a more than doubling and UN findings show the growth will see a world which is inequal in living condition and in development opportunities being out of reach of many. As the per capita GDP increases globally, the impact on the planet also grows steeply (in tandem) because consumption and demand for resources increase on many fronts such as energy, water, nutrition, food and housing.
UN SDG’s also show that developed countries develop twice as much waste per capita as developing countries. Developing nations which also have rapidly growing populations often face challenges in waste management due to limited institution and organisational capacity, she added.
“So how does businesses, government and society spur economic growth which benefits everyone without destroying the planet and how can science, technology and innovation play and important role in this?” asked Dzuleira, saying: “The answer lies in having an aligned intention for impact, a uniting, compelling mission for at least three outcomes which are; a better planet, improved well-being and wealth to make our time count.”
On the part of the government, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) secretary-general Datuk Dr Aminuddin Hassim, in his address, said: “Science, technology and innovation (STI) plays a key role in enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in terms of economic, societal, safety and environmental aspects of the nation. STI provides the foundation for the development of new sustainable technologies to meet human needs as well as tackle global challenges such as health issues, climate change, ageing society and changing lifestyles.
Former Estonian Government Chief Information Officer Taavi Kotka addressed the participants on the issue of opportunities available beyond a digital government.
“There lie greater possibilities in enhancing initiatives, such as e-Residency. With an introduction of a Digital Citizenship, one could live in another country but operate and own businesses in Estonia and pay tax like a normal citizen,” adding other avenues include fully automated tax declaration, tax collection, fraud detection and zero manual reporting towards the government.
The I-Nation conference comprised talks which focused on 4IR in line with environmental, social, and corporate governance, among them being Economic Inclusivity, Supply Chain, Healthcare, Climate Change and Food Security.
In a discussion entitled ‘InnovateNations: 45 minutes, 4 Nations: Catalysing Innovation in the Business of Government,’ moderated by Dzuleira, all four panellists agreed that governments must facilitate and play an important role in innovation which has to be inclusive and that the society including the private sector must participate. The panellists exchanged paths of their innovation journey, in terms of how innovations were turned into policy and how to intensify government to government collaboration to drive innovation and deployment strategies which propelled economic growth.
The four panellists were British High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay, German Ambassador to Malaysia Dr. Peter Blomeyer, United States Ambassador to Malaysia Brian D. Mc Feeters and High Commissioner of India to Malaysia B.N. Reddy.
‘The Stairway to #NetZero: How much love should Malaysian companies have for the Carbon Market?’ session followed and discussed Bursa Malaysia’s initiative to establish a Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) to promote low-carbon business models whereby the exchange enables companies to purchase voluntary carbon credits from climate-friendly projects and solutions.
The panellists were Director and Regional Coordinator Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (CANSEA) & President, Environmental Protection Safety, Malaysia, Nithi Nesadurai, Executive Director, Head, Dana Impak and Head, Healthcare, Khazanah Nasional Berhad Malaysia Bryan Lim and Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad (ABMB) Head of Strategic Partnerships Roy Heong and moderated by Mckinsey & Co, Malaysia Partner Vaibhav Dua.
Collectively they found that with a VCM, companies may be more inclined to invest in climate-friendly projects and solutions. They discussed ideas on the means to promote low[1]carbon business models, and to show how companies can innovate amidst the shift to environmentally friendly practices to slow down the effects of climate change. Some industries that can be commended in this area include renewable energy sectors, electric vehicle solutions, as well as projects in waste management, and energy efficiency.
The ‘InnoWoman: Woman Driving Technological Innovation & The Next Gen Talent’ session was held on the second day where panellists, IRIS.AI, Denmark Chief Executive Officer Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, and IBM Malaysia Managing Director Catherine Lian found promoting simplification of any industry is a must to increase the number of women in tech and the work force and representation of diversity matters. They highlighted the collective initiative by IBM, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to create an opportunity for free education by offering various programs such as Buffet to Technology in adopted schools in Sungai Buloh and Sepang and have placed a 40% quota for girls’ participation to be exposed to tech and issues on salary equality towards becoming policy.
Other sessions held saw discussions on strategies for raising Malaysia’s B40 income and lifestyles. And the impact of agriculture and farming methods which have changed drastically in the past decade, and more youths are beginning to find this industry appealing, thanks to agritech. At the forefront was technology optimising agricultural operations, along with increasing productivity and income generation, all while being eco-friendly.
