Malaysia to Open ‘Smart City’

Malaysia’s high-tech multimedia city modeled after the Silicon Valley is set to open a year ahead of schedule, despite economic and political turmoil in the Southeast Asian nation, officials said.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed is expected to declare the multibillion-dollar cybercity, known as Cyberjaya, officially open July 8.

A pet project of Mahathir’s, Cyberjaya is part of the country’s Multimedia Super Corridor. The zone, roughly the size of neighboring Singapore, will be bound by fiber-optic wires linking new megaprojects with the international airport and a new federal capital called Putrajaya, where Mahathir will shift offices this month.

Despite a full-blown recession, Mahathir has funneled extra money into the MSC, hailing it as Malaysia’s steppingstone to developed-nation status by 2020.

“It is our ticket to the next phase of economic development. It is a must,” said Mohamed Arif Nun, executive director and CEO of Multimedia Development Corp., the company in charge of the MSC.

The smart city, estimated to exceed $5.3 billion in costs over the next decade, envisages high-tech offices, homes and shopping centers and the capacity to hold 240,000 people.

Of the 216 companies approved for inclusion in the MSC, however, only 18 have opted to set up shop in Cyberjaya, an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia’s economic crisis and its political turmoil, sparked by the imprisonment of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, have stirred fears that major international companies would shun the Super Corridor, opting for similar projects in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Mohamed Arif dismissed the talk, saying that foreign investors were more concerned with dollar sense than political upheaval.

“To the world community, changes in the politics and actions countries take to survive--they see this as beneficial activities,” he told reporters.

Foreign companies investing in the MSC include Ericsson, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.

Software giant Microsoft Corp. had initially pledged to back the project, but plans for its involvement have not evolved. Microsoft has also expressed concern about Malaysia’s software piracy laws, saying they weren’t tough enough.

Once the Super Corridor is up and running, the government plans to develop other smart cities around the nation, Mohamed Arif said.

“This is only the first in a series of intelligent cities in Malaysia,” he said.