UK magazine says Cyberjaya should stop aping Silicon Valley and start accommodating startup projects of its own and encourage innovation and creativity.
PETALING JAYA: Cyberjaya should stop imitating Silicon Valley and become a hub for start-ups instead.
This idea was put across in an editorial piece in UK’s monthly science and technology magazine, Wired recently.
The writer, dubbing Cyberjaya a “failed Silicon Valley”, cited the city’s remote location, which even local taxi drivers could not take her to.
“Ask government officials and developers, and Cyberjaya is a success, the heart of its knowledge-based economy: 85,000 people live there, they say, and dozens of multinationals have offices – and in a few years the train lines will reach out here, too.
“But ask a taxi driver in capital city Kuala Lumpur, only thirty minutes’ drive away, and they haven’t a clue what you’re on about.”
The article also cited a story by Canadian journalist Chris Turner, who visited Cyberjaya in 2000, who in his latest book, expressed his struggle with the “disconnect between a country trying to build the next Silicon Valley while simultaneously having a derisible record of online freedoms.”
“Last month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation described Malaysian Internet censorship as going from ‘bad to worse’.”
The writer also spoke of an investor who once operated from Cyberjaya, but gave up on tax breaks by later choosing to work from KL, “where there’s stuff to do after work.”
According to the article, there are currently 800 companies operating in Cyberjaya – of which 40 are multinationals. A quarter of the 86,000 population are also college and university students.
The 35,000-odd people employed in the city are also not building “Googles of the future”, it added. They are mainly support and call centre staff for global IT firms, “who are in turn drawn by the cheap rent, budget broadband and tax deals.”
There is still hope, however. The city has of late, become a hub for startups, focusing more on “innovative works and creativity.”
It cited MaGIC (Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre), the city’s startup hub which has wide ranging programmes, and a four-month accelerator for startups. It also strives to incorporate smart technology into a real city setting.
MaGIC’s headquarters is styled after the likes of Google – adorned by bold colours, breakout rooms, and a hotel made of shipping containers, where participants from around the world can come and live while they work.
“It’s impossible to say if the attempted shift from Silicon Valley to homegrown Malaysian talent will be enough to reboot Cyberjaya as a home for innovation rather than call centres.
“But it’s surely on a better road than before: imitating Silicon Valley led to roundabouts looping pointlessly through the jungle, after all,” said the article.
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