BOOSTING INDUSTRIES’ ECOSYSTEM
Summit will inspire, facilitate innovations for businesses
ENTREPRENEURS, innovative thinkers and futurists from around the world will convene at the Global Entrepreneurship Community (GECommunity) Summit 2017.
At the two-day event, which runs from Dec 12 to 13 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here, participants can have discussion and exchange ideas on ways to help their businesses anticipate market demands and gaps.
The discussion, exchange of ideas and the building of global entrepreneurship ecosystem are expected to be conducted in the 100 GEC Labs lined up at the summit.
Finance Ministry director (national strategy unit) Datuk Dr Aminuddin Hassim said the GEC Labs were an initiative by the government to bring entrepreneurs and policymakers worldwide to discuss ways to improve their businesses to create transformation and boost the industries’ ecosystem.
“We received many requests from certain teams, asking the organiser to look ahead on how to design the future.
“Most entrepreneurship activities focus on shaping and improving their business industries. We are putting that as the priority and will find ways or innovation on what we can contribute to the future, if we want our nation to be on a par with the rest,” he said at the media briefing here.
Present were Higher Education Ministry (entrepreneurship and public-private research network unit) head Datin Dr Syahira Hamidon and Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (technology transfer and research and development, commercialisation division) deputy secretary S. Siva Kumar.
Aminuddin said the government aimed to achieve at least 41 per cent of contributions in the growth domestic product (GDP) from small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in 2050 compared with 36 per cent last year.
The second edition of the summit serves as a platform to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem by inspiring and facilitating innovations.
At the 100 GEC Lab sessions, participants can join 15 focus areas (themes). Besides that, it will also play host to 50 local and international speakers, 330 exhibitions, and 20 keynote and panel discussions.
The focus areas in the GEC Labs are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; E-Commerce and Retail; Fashion and Beauty; Food and Beverage; Hardware and IoT; Health and Biotech; Media, Gaming and Entertainment; Mobility and Transportation; Security and IT; Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality; Education; Social Innovation; Fintech and Payment; Creative; and, Smart Cities.
Theme “Designing The Future”, the event aims to raise more than RM100 million in value creation over the next two years through the GEC Labs.
Siva said the ministry would focus more on research and development at the summit.
“We want to provide a sense of being user-friendly, where when an entrepreneur comes into that kind of ecosystem, we want him to be inspired.
“We will line up about 133 exhibitions and will showcase 30 products and technologies that participants can adopt in their business,” he said.
Syahira said her ministry would encourage more students to participate in the summit.
“We want to inculcate the entrepreneurship spirit among the new generation.
“Therefore, this summit is a good platform for them to be inspired to boost their businesses,” she said.
The summit is initiated by the Finance Ministry and organised by the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre in collaboration with Higher Education and Science, Technology and Innovation ministries with the Global Entrepreneurship Movement as the community partner.
Those interested can visit www.gecommunity.co.