Breaking new ground: Sustainability in Malaysia

Technology is central to the country's sustainability agenda. Malaysia's commercial hub, Kuala Lumpur, has rolled out a smart city plan, which includes accelerating digital transformation by focusing on education and promoting cloud technologies and artificial intelligence (AI), among other areas. The Malaysian government has also emphasized technology investment in its Budget 2022, with up to MYR 100 million (US$ 23.7 million) in grants for areas such as smart automation and at least MYR 30 billion (US$ 7 billion) for government-linked companies investing in renewable energy, supply-chain modernization, and 5G infrastructure. In recent years, Kuala Lumpur has also seen an increasing number of "greening" opportunities. For instance, the city governance has employed a smart "City Brain", which uses Alibaba Cloud's computing systems to optimize services like traffic control and even calculate the best routes for emergency services.