Delegation from the International Alliance of Robotics Associations and the Zhejiang Robot Industry Association visited Malaysia and Singapore

1.     Visiting Malaysia

IMKL2023 takes place from March 16-18, 2023 at Hall 7, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As an international conference covering ASEAN and Southeast Asia, it aims to support the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry in Southeast Asia by helping companies of all sizes to understand the opportunities for digital transformation in the fields such as intelligent manufacturing and smart factories. It consisted exhibitions, presentations, technology demonstrations, and interactive workshops. More than 2,300 delegates from leading international companies, research institutes, consulting industry, and trade organizations attended the conference and exhibition. IARA and its member, Malaysia Robotics and Automation Society (MyRAS), as the supporters of the conference, jointly set up a booth in the exhibition area, showing the organizational structure of IARA and the profile introduction of the 13 members of IARA. Xiaoshan Robot Town also set up a booth.

At noon on March 16th, the delegation attended a meeting hosted by Investment Selangor, the investment promotion department of the government of Selangor State, Malaysia. Selangor is one of the thirteen states in Malaysia, with its entire territory surrounding the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The investment performance of Selangor, the development of Chinese enterprises, the priority of investment promotion, the services provided by Investment Selangor were introduced, and questions from the delegation were answered.

On the afternoon of March 16, Mr. XIONG Junjie, Deputy General Manager of Hangzhou Shenhao Technology Co., Ltd, which is the vice president unit of ZRIA, made a presentation entitled Robot-human Co-operation in Manufacturing and Infrastructure at the conference.

Still on the afternoon of March 16, Dr. ZHANG Xuequn, Deputy Secretary-General of IARA, and Dr. SANG Zhiqian from Hangzhou Dianzi University (HDU), which is a member unit of ZRIA, went to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for an unofficial visit. The dual-degree agreement signed between HDU and UKM has come into effect in 2021. The two universities plan to resume mutual visits of faculties and students this summer.

On the morning of March 17, the delegation participated in the Business Matchmaking and Roundtable Forum hosted by MyRAS at the conference venue. Prior to the event, Mohd Nor Azman bin Hassan, Deputy Secretary-General for Technology Development, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Mohd Safuan Mohd Zairi, Chief Ecosystem Development Officer, Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRATI), Mohammad Zaim Azyze Mustapha Azyze, Malaysia Automotive Robotics and IoT Institute (MARII) and other leaders from the Malaysian government and key industry organizations visited the booths of IARA/MyRAS and Xiaoshan Robot Town. During the event, MyRAS released the Malaysian National Robotics Report. Afterwards, witnessed by officials from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia, MyRAS, MRATI, MARII, ZRIA, Zhejiang Intelligent Robotics Research Institute, and Hangzhou Automation Technology Institute agreed to set up a Global Robot Innovation Hubs (GRIH). Representatives from IEEE Entrepreneurship and IARA delivered keynote speeches. In the roundtable forum, Dr. Ishkandar Baharin, President of MyRAS, introduced the main tasks and priorities of the GRIH. The six parties had a lively discussion on the proposals, and initially clarified the priority directions for development.

2.      Visiting Singapore

At noon on March 20, the delegation attended the reception by the Asia-Pacific Association for Assistive Robotics (APARA) in Singapore and was warmly received by Ms. Shanlynn Lee, the President, and Mr. Oliver Tian, the Senior Advisor. APARA is a founding member of IARA and signed a memorandum of cooperation with ZRIA in 2019. During this visit, both parties renewed the memorandum of cooperation and reaffirmed their willingness to cooperate in the field of robotics industry development. APARA and CCRIA also signed a memorandum of cooperation for the first time.

On the afternoon of March 20, the delegation visited Centre for Advanced Robotics Technology Innovation (CARTIN), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Prof. XIE Lihua, the director of CARTIN, Prof. WANG Danwei and Prof. HU Guoqiang introduced the recent research progress of CARTIN, and had an in-depth exchange with the delegation on the technological hotspots, the development direction, and the cooperation between industry and academia. Afterwards, the delegation had a meeting with Enterprise Singapore, the commercial department of Singapore government, on the support for enterprises to do business in Singapore.

On the afternoon of March 21, the delegation exchanged information with Corp IT and ESG Tech Events on the technological development and latest application of Metaverse.

On the morning of March 22, the delegation visited the SRPINT Asia-Pacific Summit, a European-based robotics industry organization, which focuses on inspection and maintenance robots in the energy, oil and gas, and offshore industries. The summit has conference presentations, session forums, and an exhibition.