Six city councils to enhance smart city, urban development plan via strategic partnership

• Phase one of the project – expected to be completed by December 2025 – includes creating a central platform that unifies urban observatory and digital citizen services platforms; and integrates with IoT and non-IoT components across these city councils.

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): The city councils of Putrajaya, Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Petaling Jaya and Kulim will get a boost in their smart city and urban development plan through real-time data, communication, and digital technology with the country’s first centralised citizen services solution project.

Phase one of the project – expected to be completed by December 2025 – includes creating a central platform that unifies urban observatory and digital citizen services platforms; and integrates with IoT and non-IoT components across these city councils.

This is the result of digital infrastructure solution provider Quantela Inc joining a strategic partnership with Malaysian-based Geographic Information System (GIS) provider MAP2U to roll out the platform for PLANMalaysia.

PLANMalaysia is an agency under the Ministry Local Government Development tasked with urban planning services for the well-being of Malaysians. Under its Smart City agenda, it is involved in developing the Smart City blueprint, introducing the national Smart City platform, Smart City accreditation as well as promoting Smart City awareness and capacity building efforts. 

The central platform will enable authorities to access unlimited insights and data analytics on a single dashboard. The overall vision for subsequent phases is to target 155 city councils across Malaysia, with use case in multiple smart city domains such as security, mobility, health, energy, water, and waste management.

“We could see a big ambition in collaborating with MAP2U in our first citizen services solution project in Malaysia. Quantela’s technology platform is the engine that will enable Malaysian authorities to collate, control data, and take decisions to improve the quality of life, foster economic growth, develop a sustainable and safe environment, and encourage efficient urban management practices,” said chief executive officer of Quantela, Amr Salem.

Meanwhile, chief executive officer of MAP2U Sdn Bhd, Datuk Gs. Azhar Ismail said that the partnership with Quantela offers unlimited value to PLANMalaysia by promoting the Standard Smart City Indicator ISO 37122 as part of Malaysia Urban Observatory (MUO) responsibilities.

Quantela Inc, founded in 2015, is a technology company that offers end-to-end infrastructure digitization solutions to help cities and communities meet their economic, social, and environmental objectives.