Malaysia to adopt Alibaba's City Brain smart city solution

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): The Malaysia City Brain initiative — the brainchild of Alibaba Group's cloud computing arm Alibaba Cloud — was launched here today, making Kuala Lumpur the first overseas city to implement the smart city solution. 

Alibaba Cloud's Malaysia City Brain programme will be enforced in collaboration with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

Malaysia City Brain, with its comprehensive suite of acquisition, integration and analysis of big and heterogeneous data capture through video and image recognition, data mining, as well as machine learning technology, will allow Malaysian urban planners and city officials to transform the city into an intelligent one.  

The City Brain was implemented in Hangzhou, China in September 2016. The Hangzhou City Brain was first launched in Xiaoshan to monitor traffic conditions, detect traffic accidents and optimise traffic signal timings.  

"Cloud computing, data technology and artificial intelligence has become fundamental tools for all companies and organisations to operate effectively," Alibaba Group senior vice-president and Alibaba Cloud president Simon Hu said at the launch ceremony.  

"Building on this partnership, we are happy to see Malaysia become the first country outside of China to adopt the City Brain. We aim to empower all Malaysian stakeholders in both the public and private sectors with tools to enhance efficiency, advance innovation and succeed in the digital age," Hu added.  

The first phase of the initiative will see the roll-out of Malaysia City Brain for use in traffic management, optimising the flow of vehicles and traffic signals by calculating the time taken to reach intersections.  

Additionally, Malaysia City Brain can connect with various urban management systems, including emergency dispatch, ambulance call, traffic command and traffic light control, subsequently identifying the quickest route for emergency vehicles to arrive at a scene within the shortest time frame.  

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, in his speech, said Kuala Lumpur's population of 1.8 million is spending 250 million hours stuck in traffic. This was based on findings from a recent World Bank survey.  

"The number of hours wasted in traffic also leads to economic loss and a possible increase of mental stress to road users. This is a critical issue for all major cities that needs to be addressed," Adnan said. 

Malaysia City Brain will be executed with a base of 382 camera feeds and input from 281 traffic lights junctions, concentrated within central Kuala Lumpur. — theedgemarkets.com

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