Development of the National Robotics and Innovation Hub at Mranti Park, Malaysia

By Ishkandar Baharin

The first series of the Malaysia Robotics Industry Country Report (MRICR) on Value Creation was released by the Malaysia Robotics and Automation Society (MyRAS) during the Intelligent Manufacturing Conference 2023.

MyRAS was commissioned by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) to develop the National Robotics Roadmap approved by the government in the National Digital Economy 4IR Council (MED4IRN) in 2021 to improve the robot density in Malaysia from 55 units in 2019 to 195 units per 10,000 employees in 2030. 

This event was organized by Ishkandar Baharin, President of MyRAS and Southeast Asia Region Team Lead on the 2023 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee. The event’s participants included Datuk Ts., Mohd Nor Azman Bin Hassan, Deputy Secretary General (Technology Development) of MOSTI, Mohd Safuan Mohd Zairi, Chief Ecosystem Development Officer of Malaysian Research Accelerator of Technology and Innovation (MRANTI), and Ir. Ts. Mohammad Zaim Azyze Mustapha Azyze, Senior General Manager of Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii), Guoyao Wang, Deputy-Chairman of Zhejiang Robot Industry Association (ZRIA), Jane Liu, authorized representative of Guocheng Wang, CSO of Zhejiang Intelligent Robotics Research Institute (ZJROB) and Zhiqian Sang, authorized representative of Chi Xu, Chairman of Hangzhou Automation Technology Institute (HATI), Andy Chen, Member-At-Large & the Asia-Pacific Region Team Lead on the 2023 IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee.

The MRICR presents the landscape of Malaysia’s Robotics Market Insights on the producers and users utilizing robotic technologies, including multinational corporations and micro, Small/Medium Enterprises. 

According to the MRICR, the Malaysia Robotics Market is projected to reach a market value of RM103.10 billion by 2030 surpassing the targeted amount in the National Robotics Roadmap 2021 – 2030. The report further dives into the robotics market in Malaysia, examining the market share by type, components, application, end-use sectors and industries, and demographics landscape.

IEEE Entrepreneurship plans on collaborating with MyRAS, MRANTI, MARii, IARA, ZRIA, ZJROB, and HATI.

The IEEE Entrepreneurship and MyRAS endorsement will see the set up of Malaysia Robotics at the National Robotics and Innovation Hub at Mranti Park, Bukit Jalil, Malaysia, to facilitate the growth of the robotics ecosystem players in Malaysia. It also entails the nurturing of local talent to meet the industry’s demand for future robotics professionals by providing relevant training and development opportunities.

According to the CEO of MRANTI, the MRICR will be a baseline to further improve the adoption of robotics applications in the various industry sectors in Malaysia. It will provide an overview of the state of robotics technology in the country, including its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

“Through this collaboration, we believe that the local adoption of robotics in the industry will increase as local and global robotics technology partners, especially in the manufacturing sectors.” said the CEO “MRANTI will utilize advanced technologies from the 4IR, including artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, and the Internet of Things (IoT), to develop their focused clusters on dronetech, healthtech, agritech, and 4IR enabling technologies with an emphasis on tech commercialization.” 

“Malaysia Robotics Country Report on Value Creation promotes the shift of Malaysia’s Robotic ecosystem from value add to value creation that is sustainable through high-impact problem solving and high-impact innovative solutions in realizing the vision of National Robotics Roadmap 2021-2030 for Malaysia to become a regional robotics hub in Services, Agriculture, and Manufacturing by 2030,” said Ishkandar Baharin.

“This report aims to provide market intelligence on the future investment and trade prospects of the robotics industry in Malaysia. The report shows 87% of the robotic technology companies are made up of industry players where Small/Medium Enterprises form a majority of 85%, and 66% of these Small/Medium Enterprises are from the manufacturing sector,” he added.