GECommunity 2016 sparks new connections & partnerships

• Reinforces Malaysia’s commitment to create a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem
• Nine cluster labs with 1,500 participants from 60 countries resulted in 50 initiatives

MORE than 5,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, and ecosystem influencers from around the world participated in the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Community (GECommunity) 2016 in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 8 and 9.

The programme focused on value creation, forging new connections and partnerships between ecosystem players and corporates and resulted in a series of announcements regarding cross-border ecosystem partnerships and MoUs as well as innovation-driven initiatives generated from the nine cluster labs and discussions which took place.

Dr. Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, Secretary General of the Treasury, Ministry of Finance Malaysia as well as chairman of Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) and Patron of Global Entrepreneurship Movement (GEM), said “When we planned the Global Entrepreneurship Community event we didn’t realise we’d start a movement.  Over the past two days we have brought many different startup ecosystem partners together, connecting governments to ecosystems, governments to grassroots and startups to corporates.”

Through the nine dedicated cluster labs GECommunity 2016 united 150 experts from 60 countries who led 1,500 participants in 24 hours of discussions.  The event closed with the launch of eight initiatives:

1. Blockchain for Assets: A new public-private-partnership to promote the adoption of blockchain technology by financial institutions. The programme will include development of use-cases; and education on policies, to promote blockchain as the platform of choice for managing assets. It will be led by XBITS, MAAYE and Wonderlist Property.
2. Artistlabs: The first creative accelerator of its kind in South East Asia to empower artists with practical skills to scale their business. Artistlabs has been developed in partnership with creative startups, with support from MaGIC. Artistlabs has also recently received positive backing from Media Prima as a leading media partner.
3. M-Powered: M-Powered by Microsoft is a new, inclusive technology platform for Malaysia, and the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. Dialogue in the Dark, one of the MaGIC Amplify award winners, is now partnering on this platform as a result of GECommunity 2016.
4. Happiness Accelerator: International start-up accelerator Techstars will explore a Happiness Accelerator, the first accelerator in the Southeast Asia, in partnership with leading industry groups in the region.
5. Fashion Rev: Fashion Revolution is a new platform to promote customer trust in ethical fashion brands, using blockchain technology to verify ethical brands.
6. Urban Farming: Under Cyberjaya’s smart city council, Cyberview will drive a new urban farming initiative within Cyberjaya, to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and promote sustainable eco-friendly living and food security.
7. Public Transport Gamification: Cyberview and Prasarana will work together to spearhead new innovation initiatives in public transportation.  The first pilot project will be to introduce a gamification program to encourage increased ridership on public transportation.
8. Multi-Modal Transport Network: Local champion Grab, is leading a push towards a multi-model transport network between private and public transport operators, powered by smart technology, open data-sharing and energy-efficient vehicles to increase the efficiency and sustainability of transport services in the region.

MaGIC CEO Ashran Ghazi said: “The world class speakers at GECommunity 2016 inspired everyone in the room, triggering ideas which look beyond the problems of today and tomorrow and creating debate around how the problems of the future will affect individual industries.  Taking the seeds of these ideas our role over the next year is to sustain them, spur hope and movement and ultimately help entrepreneurs to balance this alongside their need to survive today as well.”

GEM strengthens Malaysia’s connections to the global ecosystem

During GECommunity 2016, GEM joined together with ten ecosystem partners to help create market access for Malaysia’s entrepreneurs and build global connections.  Working with these partners GEM will help Malaysia’s entrepreneurs connect with ecosystems in other markets and startups around the world as well as supporting youth development. 

The partners included GEN Global, Allied for Startups, Bangladesh’s Team Engine, Malaysian Association of Asean Young Entrepreneurs, MyPerintis, SIS Consortium (comprising SOLS24/7, Incirement, Social Grooves), Startup India, South Africa’s Entrepreneur Traction, Entrepreneur G Lebanon and Vietnam Startups.

In addition GEM announced that GECommunity 2016 had enabled the progress of five specific initiatives:

1. Connecting with 165 countries through partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN)
2. Joining Allied for Startups – a European consortium of startups
3. Forming a #305Forum with 30 countries on building a ‘global quilt’ to solve problems together
4. Signing MOUs with South Africa & Bangladesh
5. Signing local MOUs with MyPerintis and SIS

Malaysian government’s commitment to entrepreneurship

GECommunity 2016 took place alongside the Malaysia Commercialisation Year (MCY) exhibition which was hosted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti).  During the opening ceremony Prime Minister Najib Razak announced there would be a second wave of Malaysia Commercialisation Year in 2017 to be called MCY 2.0.

The Prime Minister announced the launch of strategic entrepreneurship development and social entrepreneurship initiatives which will go live in June:

•  “Global Accelerator Programme” (GAP), an evolution of MaGIC’s existing programme to help create interconnectivity within the ecosystem
•  “Global Impact Challenge” (GIC), that will harness the strengths of global startups to solve problems affecting local communities in Southeast Asia such as access to clean water, electricity and education.
• SE Certification that will provide social enterprises with a certification that accredits their businesses to help them obtain loans from banks or capital from investors easier.
• A new initiative that ensures the inclusion of social enterprises in corporates’ vendor procurement pipeline to ensure these corporates purchase more sustainable products and services.

Five winners of ideation lab

Asean’s Next Great Idea – an initiative co-organised by MaGIC, Uber, and Digi – named five winners yesterday the inaugural GECommunity 2016. The champions will have the opportunity to meet early stage investors and other key players within the entrepreneurship ecosystem in San Francisco, United States.

The winners were selected after completing a six-day ideation lab and presenting their business ideas and prototypes to executives from MaGIC, Uber, and Digi at the end of the programme. The winners are:

1. Liang Chun Lim – Saloma: Saloma aims to connect small-scale farmers directly to institutional food buyers by aggregating their supply through cloud computing. This will remove the hassle of going through multiple intermediaries when selling their products.
2. Nigel Gui – Got Car: Got Car enables prospective car buyers to test-drive vehicles directly with car owners rather than showrooms.
3. James Mendoza – HealthBlocks: Through HealthBlocks, James would like to build a trusted platform for health information exchange. The platform aims to manage healthcare more efficiently and effectively by integrating regulators, governments, physicians, and patients into a single platform.
4. Cornie Foong – Closing the Gap: Closing the Gap aims to close the opportunity gap for low-income kids by helping them to overcome common hurdles to secure a place in top universities.
5. Lukvi Raharasi – Timba: Timba is a platform that will connect makers and craftsmen with professionals to build prototype and develop idea. 

 
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