- 19 hours ago
Turning technology ambitions into business growth and skilled careers takes talent, funding and industry collaboration. Yong Kai Ping, CEO of Selangor Information Technology & Digital Economy Corporation (SIDEC), and Hanif Ghulam Mohammed, CEO of Affin Hwang
Investment Bank Berhad, discuss how AiSEM 2026 connects these priorities to opportunities for Malaysian businesses and talent.
Investment Bank Berhad, discuss how AiSEM 2026 connects these priorities to opportunities for Malaysian businesses and talent.
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00:08Malaysia's technology's ambitions go beyond using AI to building designing
00:14shapes to building homegrown innovations and creating high-skill jobs and that's
00:19the focus of ISM at Selangor, formerly known as a CD which will be having
00:24running from 14 to 17 October but to support this ambition we need talent fun
00:31and the sport of the industry and joining us to discuss how can we
00:35translate all of these opportunities to real growth and even create careers
00:41formulation I welcome you and honor to welcome you with our guests on the left
00:45side is mr. Yong Kaiping chief executive officer Selangor information technology
00:50and digital economy corporation CDEC and also on my left is Hanif Gullah
00:55Muhammad chief executive officer of Affin Huang Investment Bank Burhat thank
00:59you very much for joining me mr. Yong and mr. Hanif how are you
01:03thank you for having all right this is a very busy week from October 14 to 17 we
01:07talking how can we empower semiconductor and AI sector but talking about ISM is
01:12the 11th edition rebranded from a CDEC please share with us why putting
01:18semiconductors in AI under one summit and what's the difference for this year
01:23share with this museum yeah thank you I think the AI is powered by semiconductor
01:28that's very obvious and then we are maybe number six or number seven in the
01:34world for for semiconductor production right so we should advance this capability
01:40to other industry as well so this year we are moving also evolving from IC
01:47design to for example application AI application like robotic we have so in
01:52this conference we have around 12 robots and autonomous driving machine as well and
02:00then EV helicopter EV tow as well so I think the most important thing is
02:05beside this showcasing all these products as well we have six homegrown chips
02:10besides showcasing this we already have four hundred and nine engineers working at
02:15our IC Park one and Park two in Puchong PFCC Bandar Putri and also Cyber Jaya and we are
02:23growing to around 20 companies onboarded in our IC Park so this is a
02:29thriving ecosystem and now we are moving to robotic section so more and more
02:35robotic companies are coming they are using our Malaysian homegrown chips and then our
02:42eco software as well and hiring a lot of high paid job this is a journey of our future and
02:49transformation of how far Malaysia has come in semiconductor and even AI so this is
02:55also what some of that we can expect during the summit but for mr. Hanif thank you
02:59very much we know that AFIN has been a long sponsor for this event and then what some of
03:07the factors that drive AFIN this continued support and how this cooperation and collaborations I reflect
03:13a broader commitments of AFIN's bank commitments that relates with a malicious economic growth
03:19firstly thank you Nina for and good afternoon so as Mr. Yong has pointed out you know we have been
03:26AFIN has
03:27been a long-standing sponsor for SEDAC and conference and this year's team AI and semiconductor resonates
03:35well with us because we feel that the technology industry is a key focus area for AFIN group and you
03:44know we've been partnering small medium enterprises for a long time and if they are the cornerstone of the
03:52Malaysian economy and this is why AFIN keeps on coming back to promote events such as this because it not
04:01only brings us closer to the people that we finance and to the industry that we care about but it
04:09also
04:09showcases AFIN's capabilities to not only support in terms of financial because capital is always necessary
04:17for growing companies startups you know that that is necessary but we need to build an ecosystem to
04:25support our SMEs to thrive and to become global champions so through our initiatives such as Rakan
04:33Niaga SME Biz SME Colony we build the network and to support our Malaysian entrepreneurs in this journey and
04:43this is why we continue to sponsor events such as this because we believe that we want to grow with
04:50our clients their journey from startups all the way to large enterprises and all the way to becoming
04:56global champions the continued growth is not only for finance but also from the expect to build a whole
05:04comprehensive ecosystem to boost the small to large scale enterprise is that definitely very important
05:10this is like the new way of how can we finance innovations and mr. Yong we know that ISOM brings
05:16together the SLAMO and the triple accelerator grand final demo day at the semiconductor conference and
05:22the AI innovations conference share with us how do these pieces connected and who should be coming here
05:28yeah I think the all the tech people and also future talent students a lecturer higher learning education should
05:38be all joining in and also we also welcome entrepreneur entrepreneur who have the ideas to want to make the
05:45ideas to work and then go to the market as well so I think we have a complete end-to
05:51-end ecosystem working
05:52for example now we have 409 engineer maybe up to 500 in the next couple of months engineers so they
06:01come
06:02back it's a living ecosystem so they need financing support on their private retail lifestyle as well then
06:10the company will grow so we have two funds now one is the SLAMO state government fund ASAN capital we
06:17are
06:17investing early stage one into into the companies inside our IC Park and then now we are building together with
06:25Kazana and also SLAMO with Kazana and Penang national strategic investment fund we will be a follow-up fund
06:33then also working with security commission and of course with the support of AFIN investment banking system so it's all
06:41a very complete end-to-end so that we will be able to raise their skill from SME towards the
06:51regional
06:52player international player hopefully will be a unicorn but also from a design to manufacturing factory for
07:00example all these robots like they need factory so we need to we need to give them the production capability
07:07as
07:07well so we can see a lot of people coming exchanging knowledge ways how can we push the whole ecosystem
07:16within the semiconductor in AI but Mr. Yong we have we are midway through the summit what some of the
07:23things that people should look out over for the remaining days yeah I think we still have a long two
07:29days of recruitment day all the talents are here right so these are the today we expect almost 8,000
07:36students joining 50 companies are recruitment day all these companies need to be recruited with
07:41talents as well and then our conferences we are talking about capital fundraising scaling and also
07:51how to the go to the market as well we're looking at new market so our focus point is always
07:56a team
07:56will be always three parts one is talent second is a funding third one is business opportunity and how
08:02do we help them all this company to to grow them into various sectors so we have today look at
08:09the
08:09today we already have a signing MOU with Peking University which is a very difficult working you need
08:16as well the most esteemed well-known grown world university top six in the world right Peking University and
08:22then we have our delegation visitors from Uzbekistan and other country as well they're looking at how we manage to
08:31grow this IC design pump within two years with so many companies so many engineers employing working
08:37and now we are moving a new sector autonomous sectors robotic sectors as well and I really appreciate the
08:43support of Affinbank giving all this year support and it fit into our whole ecosystem and this is a very
08:52good progress participation from around 8,000 students we have delegations international delegations and also
09:00some of exchange of memorandum definitely this is like a step up or how can we level up moving forward
09:07but Ms. Soyang looking at this talking about Affinbank especially how is Affinbank is helping the startups
09:15SMEs growing companies access easy finance and what some of the criteria that they need for us to boost them
09:25yeah so Affin together with CGC we've partnered them to create a 500 million fund to help fund SMEs in
09:38starting from their beginning journey all the way up to becoming a successful business on top of that we
09:45also have Affin Jam which where we support women entrepreneurs which with financing without collateral
09:54so these are some of the products which we provide to the companies that to the to the entrepreneurs that
10:01begin their journey they're starting the journey and as they evolve we provide them with different type of
10:07uh product of and financing which they require for example trade financing foreign exchange and you know
10:15uh and as they grow bigger they will need bigger capital raising so this is where then we take them
10:21through the
10:21journey of raising financing through the capital markets or financing with different different type of
10:29products and instruments but along the way not just financing we also provide networking we provide them with the
10:39necessary network support system that we partner with all our other clients so that they can build their
10:49ecosystem because they besides capital they will need the network they will need the expertise from other
10:56other industries they will need the help from government assistance so this is where Affin comes and plays a role
11:03we don't just provide the financing we provide the whole ecosystem knowledge ecosystem to help the company grow from
11:11SME all the way to a large scale and on top of that Affin recently obtained financing from the international
11:22finance
11:23cooperation of about US 400 million US dollars and that is specifically a majority to finance small and medium enterprises
11:34and the IFC themselves estimate that this initiative will help create about 40 40 000 odd jobs in the next
11:43five to
11:43six years for the Malaysian economy so we in Affin we firmly believe in the Malaysian economy
11:52we firmly believe in local talents we firmly believe in what SEDEC is doing growing local champions and
11:59growing their whole ecosystem so we're not here just provide financing for the entrepreneurs we want to
12:04provide financing uh as uh Steon has said about uh you know they will there will be engineers there will
12:12be uh you
12:13know they start growing their careers here so we are there also for the individual journey and I think this
12:20is where
12:20we find the opportunities to collaborate here in line with our AX28 uh strategies you know which is a
12:29responsible banking with impact and providing unrival uh customer service so that's that's how we we fit
12:36into this whole entire narrative and we know that every business for my organizations come from different
12:41backgrounds and different expertise and different needs uh and different plans for the future uh we know that
12:47there's uh Islamic banking solution there's also conventional banking solution uh approach that uh
12:52uh Afin did uh Afin did is combining these two solutions so how did how did Afin combine these two
13:00banking
13:00Islamic banking and even conventional banking solution to help meet the financing needs of
13:06Malaysians entrepreneurs especially yeah so it basically by offering conventional and sharia products
13:13it just is to give basically the wide variety of options to all our entrepreneurs right and also to to
13:21our clients it is to offer the the uh different products uh but and accessibility to all the financial
13:30markets because sometimes um we want to we don't want to limit the clients to just the conventional
13:36pool but because we in Malaysia the sharia compliant pool is also very large so it gives them a wide
13:43variety
13:43of options to tap into the banking system conventional and also a sheriff banking system but not only that
13:51because we also have large capital market base uh for Islamic and also for conventional where we attract
14:00foreign funds right and this is why uh we offer this flexibility so that entrepreneurs can have that
14:07multitude of variety to uh finance their operations and choose the right solution for their business and we
14:16know that especially SMEs need both approach and both solution and both support especially from the cash flow
14:22and also what can we build to increase uh their resilience in uh any type of economies we're in
14:29and maybe uh honey share with us beyond financing how does up in collaboration with sedeq especially
14:35and an initiative such as we are ai helps SMEs prepare for the digital economy yeah so um you know
14:43so we we
14:44we partner with sedeq and especially for their triple x program where they accelerate the learning of
14:50uh ai and sme so that the companies we provide the ecosystem so this is part of affin's initiative to
14:58provide that ecosystem for the entrepreneurs to leverage ai and to embed ai and automation into their
15:06work processes so that they can achieve the efficiency the operational efficiency that they need they
15:12may not necessarily be involved 100 percent into that uh ai and semiconductor industry but the learnings
15:19and workings out of all this industry can definitely be applied to across all the SMEs and that's the and
15:26that's
15:26why we partner with sedeq uh and especially for this conference so that uh we can be we are partners
15:33for this knowledge transfer to across all our SMEs and definitely talking about finance we finance in a lot of
15:39ways from uh every level uh insert injection with the talent uh within uh finance and even building the
15:49corporations what we believe in uh young we know that talent is one of the biggest gap within the
15:55semiconductors but um we know that not without we if we have all of the of the right equipment tools
16:02technology but with the wrong talent it cannot be pushed it cannot be developed or advanced
16:08so what is the malaysia semiconductor recruitment day offering and who should come i think the talent is a
16:15global issue uh whenever you go there's a shortage of talent especially with ai and then ai means
16:21that everything we have to relearn everything additional ai into implementing in every sector
16:26right so so there will be two types of knowledge one uh talent what we need is general ai knowledge
16:32second is the vertical industrial knowledge for example banking industry as well has their own ai
16:38which is different from others ai as well right so we have to combine the both so it will be
16:43a
16:43continuous the issue is we need to invest uh in a large number in terms of that so and also
16:51it will
16:52change our life uh previously if you want to work right so after you work uh then and a bit
16:58of
16:58lifelong learning hobby that's it but now you have to have additional uh fixed mandatory learning time for
17:06ai general knowledge of ai but that ai in your vertical industry that you choose from for example
17:13robotics is uh physical ai as well right and then banking industry claw and the rest is multiple
17:19cyber security and stuff like that but it you should look at it uh not as a problem not as
17:26a shortage but
17:26an opportunity for us to grow this industry we're at the our last last segment and that is our hope
17:34moving
17:34forward before i ask young i'll ask honey first uh what's your key message uh hopes to all the sme's
17:43owners and entrepreneurs out there in conjunction of icem okay so firstly uh thank you mr young we we
17:50we thoroughly enjoy uh being here uh to support the sme industry and also to support sedeq so uh our
17:58message
17:58is of course uh we wish to collaborate with all the entrepreneurs and all the businesses uh supporting
18:04their journey uh from uh small scale to large scale uh finn is uh always there for you uh always
18:12about you
18:13so uh if anything if there's any queries on our products or any way that often can help i would
18:19like
18:19to encourage uh participants to visit our booth at the at this uh hall three uh and uh you know
18:27we'll be happy
18:28to answer all the queries all right thank you very much uh young we're at the last uh session maybe
18:34share with us what's the dream and hope and this definitely almost a decade uh in conjunction of icem
18:41share with us yeah i i hope all all the uh participants into these conferences uh would actually enjoy
18:48our conference our exhibition our recruitment day i'll go to every booth to learn about this is a fast
18:54track uh you know to to learn uh quickly learn about the technology what's evolving one second is
19:00actually what we need to do now is a public movement we would like to encourage all our friends uh
19:06children
19:07narrative now to seriously study semiconductor robotic uh ai so this should be the top three in uh chosen
19:18uh industry uh and then if you are working so we there's so much knowledge you need to learn about
19:24it
19:25so we we should embrace all this technology so not only as a hobby but uh apply it use it
19:31online for
19:32example when we are talking about uh share trading now most of the guy has a ai agent so how
19:38to build that
19:39agent to suit your appetite right and that's something that we need to learn it's good for ourselves our
19:45benefit but also uh part of the technology and it's immediate you can feel the effect so we will
19:51encourage everybody now this is a we need a public movement to do that to learn to apply in our
19:57life
19:57so i believe that our sme need to be valuable relevant you must have ai and then not the kind
20:05of
20:05prompt ai or chat gpt you must have an ai agent i think that that's a minimum requirement now and
20:11we're
20:11going to keep uh working towards that future that goals and again thank you very much to young and
20:17hanif and hopefully we'll have another discussion to discuss about semi-conductor in at ai futures
20:24moving forward again thank you very much and isem slango brings talent funding and even industry
20:30together and the next step is how can we change all of this connection into opportunities that malaysia can
20:35build and and that's it for me nina rosman signing off see you next time