Sunway to launch Malaysia's first urban farming innovation hub

PETALING JAYA (June 5): The Sunway Group plans to establish a 50,000 sq ft urban farming innovation hub called Sunway FutureX in Sunway City Kuala Lumpur in Bandar Sunway, Selangor.

The innovation hub which is set to be completed in 3Q2020, will be the first of its kind in Malaysia, the company said in a press release in conjunction with World Environment Day.

Led by Sunway Innovation Labs (Sunway iLabs), Sunway FutureX aims to serve as a skills-building hub for urban farming professionals, tech companies, researchers and young talents to collaborate and to create transformative solutions focusing on food and agritech. The initiative leads Sunway’s venture into agritech.

Sunway Group chief innovation officer and Sunway iLabs director Matt Van Leeuwen said Sunway Property will be one of the hub’s first partners.

“We hope to empower homeowners to grow their own food. This will be a model for Sunway Property to replicate throughout their cities in Malaysia, and allows us to scale up quickly.

"FutureX Farm will focus on the delivery of four key objectives – Nourish, Educate, Empower and Innovate. Sunway FutureX will aim to create decentralised urban farms to serve local communities, and to address supply chain challenges and distance between farm to fork,” he added.

In urban areas such as the Klang Valley where land is limited and expensive, Sunway sees the potential of harvesting the power of talent and technology to build urban farms on underutilised spaces such as rooftops, car parks and even within buildings.

The innovation hub will come with three pillars -- FutureX Farm which is an indoor and outdoor smart farming area, FutureX Talent which is a research and development centre, as well as FutureX Campus, a training and collaborative space which includes a cafe.

Another partner of FutureX Farm is Thought For Food (TFF), an international non-profit organisation dedicated to entrepreneurial innovation for food and agriculture.

"We see many exciting opportunities to collaborate with Sunway iLabs to provide a sandbox for startups from our global TFF innovation platform to carry out pilot projects and test out their solutions to fit the local market needs,” said TFF CEO Christine Gould.

TFF will also be partnering with Sunway iLabs to launch various programmes including the TFF Digital ASEAN Lab to engage, empower and accelerate the next generation of purpose-driven food and agritech innovators.

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