Geelong Advertiser

Cyber tie-up signed

- DAVE CAIRNS

A PARTNERSHI­P between the growing tech hub at North Geelong and the Malaysian smart city of Cyberjaya was yesterday predicted to strengthen both innovation ecosystems.

At the formal signing of the agreement yesterday, Cyberview managing director Najib Ibrahim said the transforma­tion of Cyberjaya into a playground for people taking innovative technology ideas from concepts through to businesses capable of competing at a global level would not have been possible without collaborat­ion with strategic partners.

“I have always believed that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts, and we can achieve greatness only if we pull together our expertise and resources for the benefit of society,” Mr Najib said.

Cyberview is the operator of Cyberjaya, a technology hub that is home to more than 40,000 knowledge workers, which yesterday entered into an “innovation ecosystem partnershi­p” with the Pivot City Innovation District based at Federal Mills Park.

Mr Najib said Cyberview had collaborat­ed with many major corporatio­ns and had close relationsh­ips with internatio­nal cities, such as Barcelona, in Spain, but this was its first ecosystem partnershi­p.

He suggested the Pivot City partnershi­p would open the possibilit­y of start-ups in each country accessing the other’s business accelerato­r programs.

Cyberjaya is set to launch an innovation and IP commercial­isation hub to accelerate the commercial­isation of future innovation­s.

“We aim to grow 100 startups, create 500 jobs and train 1200 entreprene­urs from the launch of this new developmen­t, set to launch by the fourth quarter of this year,” he said.

The Pivot City agreement aims to deliver a raft of business connection­s and support business accelerato­r and investment relationsh­ips.

“The most concrete plans we have on schedule for our collaborat­ion would be the demo day of our accelerato­r program, where we will welcoming investors from Geelong attending the pitching session from the start-ups participat­ing in our accelerato­r at the moment,” Mr Najib said.

 ??  ?? Najib Ibrahim
Najib Ibrahim

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia