Sunway and NEC join hands to develop smart city solutions for Iskandar township

Sunway Iskandar and NEC Asia Pacific have partnered to explore a collaboration which aims to augment safety and security for Johor's Sunway Iskandar township and develop smart city solutions together in an Innovation Centre of Excellence (CoE).As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), NEC will be appointed as one of Sunway Iskandar's preferred ICT vendor. NEC will explore implementing its latest technologies and digital solutions, including biometrics, video analytics and fingerprint and facial recognition, towards making Sunway Iskandar a smart, secure and sustainable township. It will also establish a one-stop service desk support centre for NEC's Managed Service business in Sunway Iskandar.NEC plans to invest approximately RM100 million into the township of Sunway Iskandar, which will create skilled tech jobs and develop local “technopreneurs” and tech-savvy talents within the economic growth corridor of Iskandar Malaysia.The Innovation CoE which is done in partnership with Sunway Innovation Labs and scheduled to open in 2020, may eventually create "hundreds of job opportunities" over the years, the press statement read. It aims to build a pool of talent and expand on its subject matter expert personnel, mainly in the fields of public safety, transportation and healthcare.Managing director and deputy CEO (ASEAN sub-region) of NEC Asia Pacific, Lim Kok Quee, said this collaboration expands its footprint in Malaysia. "The Sunway Group is an ideal partner for us, as they demonstrate a strong will to digitalise and innovate for solutions that will deliver sustainable socio-economic value," Lim said.Lim added that Sunway Iskandar is "a gateway" for NEC to expand its smart city solutions in Malaysia and the ASEAN region.Meanwhile, Sunway Group president Chew Chee Kin said, "“As NEC is a deep tech company, we can learn a lot from NEC. We look forward to NEC setting up a research and development centre in Sunway Iskandar."