SERI KEMBANGAN, 28 JAN: Selangor menyasarkan pencapaian 46 peratus bagi inisiatif pelaksanaan Negeri Pintar (Smart Selangor) menjelang hujung tahun ini, kata Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.

Dato’ Menteri Besar berkata 12 domain yang dikendalikan oleh Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU) sejak 2016 itu dilaksanakan berperingkat.

“Sehingga November tahun lalu, pencapaian Selangor ke arah Negeri Pintar mencapai 26 peratus dan kita menjangkakan mencapai 46 peratus hujung tahun ini.

“Usaha pelaksaaan 12 domain termasuk e-tunai, pengurusan alam sekitar, ekonomi dan pentadbiran negeri itu dilaksanakan berperingkat sejak 2016,” katanya ketika ditemui media selepas Majlis Perasmian Penutup Program Perkampungan Menara Gading Selangor di Universiti Putra Malaysia.

Belanjawan Selangor 2020 memperuntukkan RM50 juta dengan tumpuan pembangunan ‘Selangor Gigabit Network’ (SeGNet) dan ‘Hybrid Data Centre’ yang bakal memperkenalkan penggunaan jaringan intranet kerajaan berkelajuan tinggi dan menerajui penggunaan teknologi pengkomputeran awan untuk tujuan pemulihan data ketika bencana.

IN THE future, residents and business owners in Selangor will be able to pay their licences and assessment tax through the statewide mobile application Citizen E-Payment (CEPat).

At present, the app is only available for payments made to Hulu Selangor District Council, Kuala Selangor District Council and Kajang Municipal Council for compounds, licence applications and assessment tax payments.

“The state, through its Selangor Smart Delivery Unit, is hoping to make it available to everyone in Selangor by 2023.

“Users will be able to make payments for all the different services listed, ” said environment, green technology, science technology and innovation and consumer affairs committee chairman Hee Loy Sian.

Hee was responding to Muhammad Hilman Idham’s (PH-Gombak Setia) question for an update on the state’s Cashless Society Smart Selangor programme.

The programme was introduced to develop Selangor’s digital economy system further, with different mobile apps to assist the public in making payments for services from councils across the state.

Besides CEPat, Hee said the public could also utilise the Smart Selangor portal to make payments to local and district councils.

Alternatively, the state would introduce the Smart Kiosk, a cashless kiosk to make payments for services rendered by the state using credit and debit cards.

Another application, FassTap, can be used to pay for services using either credit card or QR code via smartphones to encourage micro-transactions in the state.

Hee said the state was encouraging the public to utilise the e-wallet when making purchases at bazaars such as the annual Ramadan bazaar in different neighbourhoods.

“We introduced the use of e-wallet in Ramadan bazaars in 2018 and it was well-received by all, ” he said.

This year, about 4,000 stalls participated in the e-wallet campaign during the fasting month, which saw transactions amounting to RM80,000.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — The Selangor government aspires to be South-east Asia’s premier Smart State by 2025, by leveraging on smart technology and innovations.

Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari said under the Smart Selangor initiative, it would provide solutions to the needs and problems of the people, as well as enhance the state’s socio-economic prospects and create more high-value opportunities for business and investments.

“Smart Selangor is unique in the sense that it is the only one in the world to take the concept beyond established urban hubs.

“The goal of Smart Selangor is to ensure that everyone in Selangor from city dwellers to kampung folk, from white-collared executives to fisherman and farmers can reap its benefits,” he said in his keynote address at the Selangor Regional Powerhouse forum, here, today.

The Smart Selangor initiative started in late 2015 with the vision of being ranked in the top 20 smart cities in the world, with an idea to leverage on the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to improve the quality of life for all its people.

It has listed 12 domains under the project’s master blueprint such as Smart Waste Management, Smart Digital Infrastructure, Smart Governance and Smart Education.

Amiruddin said Selangor has come a long way over the years and was proud to be the most advanced state in the country, and it was time for the state to take the next step up to a higher level.

“When it comes to digital infrastructure, our high-speed Internet penetration rate is 60 per cent this year, and under the Smart Selangor initiative, we aim to increase it to 100 per cent by 2025,” he said.

Amiruddin said Selangor had long been Malaysia’s economic champion with a gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately US$80 billion last year and contributed almost a quarter of the national GDP.

Moving forward, Amirudin said the state government was also increasing its focus on various clusters such as aerospace, automotive, agriculture and agro-technology, maritime, education and eco-tourism to further add value to Selangor’s economy.

“Selangor has become a hub for a number of industries including aerospace-related ones which have brought in investments worth RM25 billion, as well as life sciences which generated investments worth RM13 billion,” he said.

Selangor Regional Powerhouse is a one-day forum which ropes in 500 global dignitaries comprising policy makers and industry leaders to discuss investment opportunities in Selangor and how the state government and industries could work together for mutual benefit and in optimising the state’s ideal ecosystem and infrastructure. — Bernama

THE RM1 charge imposed for topping up credit in the Smart Selangor Parking (SSP) app will be exempted for users with effect from Oct 9.

Selangor Local Government, Public Transport and New Village Development Committee chairman Ng Sze Han said Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU) and the state government would absorb the charge.

“Since the application was launched in July 1 this year, we have received a lot of positive feedback from users.

“However, some users wanted the extra charge of RM1 to be exempted while topping up, so we have decided to exempt it. 

“Most importantly, we want to encourage more people to start using this app,” he said. 

To date, there are 75,750 registered users of the app with 828,131 parking transactions made. 

The app, which also allows users to pay parking compounds, also recorded 54,292 parking compound transaction. 

Only six local councils in Selangor – Petaling Jaya City Council, Shah Alam City Council, Ampang Jaya Municipal Council, Sepang Municipal Council, Kajang Municipal Council and Selayang Municipal Council – are using the application. 

Ng (pic below) said he hoped more local councils would join and allow the use of the app. 

With the RM1 exemption, he said he expected SSP app users to double by the end of the year. 

“The app helps in reducing carbon footprint from 62,355kg of paper used to produce parking coupons in Selangor,” he said.

However, Ng clarified that there was no plan to make the SSP a compulsory method to pay for parking. 

“We are merely giving more alternatives to pay for parking charges as motorists still can use coupons and parking tickets. 

“We need to give it some time for users, as some senior citizens might not be familiar with it,” he said. 

SSDU project manager Mazlan Mahadi said they collected about RM100,000 from the RM1 credit top-up charges last month. 

“Only about 15% of users in Selangor are using the app, and we hope more will utilise it,” he said. 

The app will alert users to pay parking charges five minutes before their current parking payment expires. 

Meanwhile, Ampang Municipal Council president Abdul Hamid Hussain said MPAJ had collected RM13.2mil from daily parking coupons, monthly passes, and reserved parking bays. 

“We plan to raise disabled parking to 35 parking lots from 20 lots. 

Source – The Star Online

A TRIP to the Ramadan bazaar is now made easier with the cashless transaction initiative by Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU).

SSDU introduced the mobile app Boost for customers and traders at bazaars in Selangor for shoppers to enjoy hassle-free e-wallet transactions.

SSDU managing director Dr Mohammad Fahmi Ngah said the pilot project for the initiative introduced at the Pandan Indah bazaar had received positive response.

“Out of the almost 100 traders, 50 are using the app to receive payments, while 400 people downloaded the app in Pandan Indah,” he said.

Users can download the app from either Google Play Store or Apple App Store, transfer money to the e-wallet and use the scan and pay function to scan the QR code.

Dr Mohammad Fahmi said the introduction of the Boost application for the past two months was part of the Smart Selangor programme.

“After Ramadan bazaars, we will move into the Aidilfitri bazaars as well as into shopping malls.

“We also have plans to expand the usage to local council-type services such as renting of halls,” he said after launching the Bazaar Ramadan Mampan in Pandan Indah.

He added that the app would be introduced to the masses via public engagements with local councils and through SSDU as well.

“It is all done in a safe, secure and reliable manner.

“Before we started, we filtered through several other e-wallet players and Boost came out as the top as it provide users with RM5 when they first download the app,” he said.

Pandan Indah assemblyman Izham Hashim said apps like these could be a game changer in how businesses were conducted.

Also present at the event was Ampang Jaya Municipal Council president Abdul Hamid Hussain.

Izham (second from left) and Abdul Hamid (right) promoting the Boost e-wallet app at the Ramadan bazaar in Pandan Indah.

Source – The Star Online

Smart Selangor Delivery Unit (SSDU) Innovations Sdn Bhd has partnered a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Amazon. com, Amazon Web Services, to provide cloud-based computing service to the businesses in Selangor.

Deputy programme director Dr Fahmi Ngah (picture) said the service, namely CloudStart, is a paid subscription that enables existing companies or startups to execute their business operations entirely via the virtual information technology (IT) realm.

“According to the Amazon Web Services’ analysis and its track record in other implemented countries, the cost of starting up a business will be 40% to 70% less through cloud computing, compared to the traditional means of buying several business operating softwares and hardwares separately.

“Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) have limited capital expenditure for IT, which usually costs a lot,” he told The Malaysian Reserve at the partnership ceremony in Shah Alam yesterday.

Fahmi added that the deployment of cloud computing in a business operation will prevent ill-matched investments.

“Any companies who are involved in data storage and IT will face the same problem. They will either underspend or overspend in hardwares and softwares.

“It is hard to determine how much storage an evolving company needs and as a result they will spend millions preparing for data storage, which in few years will become obsolete,” he said.

Fahmi said the cloud-based system allows companies to upgrade their data storage as the business operations expand according to the current requirements.

“The built-in application would enhance their business operations in terms of point of sales, accounting as well as human resources management.

“The programme has been adopted in many multinational companies,” he added.

As an economic development organisation, SSDU is the first delivery unit in Asia to be approached by Amazon Web Services to implement and disseminate the service.

Director of projects and business development Mazlan Mahadi added that SSDU is anticipating that the service will be adopted by 500 Selangor businesses within the first 12 months.

“We will start to promote the service in May through several packages based on the needs of different types of businesses in Selangor.

“It may take a while as we have about 20,000 SMEs in Selangor, which account for 20% of the total small-sized businesses in Malaysia’” he said, adding that the cloud-based service also offers other programmes, such as the AWS Educate and the AWS Academy.

AWS Educate allows students or working adults to get certified in Industry 4.0-related courses which feature about 30 career fields. AWS Academy, on the other hand, provides higher learning institutions’ for students and lecturers to gain access to data analytics software as well as artificial intelligence learning.

Source – Malaysian Reserve