Panel: Buidling in Malaysia | 15th Oct 2023 | Sunway University | ETHKL 2023

all right let's not waste any time ladies and Gentlemen let's welcome from ether scan Mr Matthew tan from mde Mr Danish from 42k Mr Tila we welcome them to the stage as well as our moderator the organizer today e k let's welcome harit all right pass out the mics pass mic here can you guys just share these two mics between yourselves thank you so much all right thanks Russ um so we're very lucky here to have uh three people from very different backgrounds uh to talk about how it is to be building uh in Malaysia uh in web3 so without further Ado um I'm just going to get you guys to kind of introduce yourselves to the audience for those who might not know you and what your kind of how you play a role in this building of Malaysia so maybe we can start with uh Matt probably most people know you more uh uh who you are and kind of what you're doing to be building in Malaysia um Matthew uh from uh e scan um so um so there's actually two ways that we're kind of doing right now so obviously the first way is by supporting Grassroots uh Community like ekl so I think we've been doing that since uh 2018 um and um so I think when it comes to supporting uh the community right uh there should be more focus on supporting the commun when they actually smaller versus doing it when they are bigger so I think add value more there and I think the other thing uh that we kind of want to do which I kind of talked about in the uh yesterday was uh also uh just showing that we can build Global products out of Malaysia thank you and danish uh very good afternoon I've seen the crowd here today very uh encouraging uh a big uh big salute to organizers here uh I think this is one of the first or probably one of the biggest uh Builder based events in Malaysia and we really hope that we can do more of this moving forward so just a bit of intro about myself uh my name is Danish some of you have probably have met across few engagements around the web3 and blockchain space uh again uh a government representative here in uh blockchain event and just now the previous panel you know there was discussions about regulations you know and looking at it government seem sometimes is at odds right uh with regards to blockchain and Etc but let me assure you about one thing right our position is uh we really want to help from MD particularly right we really want to help to grow the ecosystem uh and hopefully drive more Builders talent pool and hopefully also Investments both from local domestic companies and also foreign companies into Malaysia I think that is what we do uh and that is what is my role and my team members roles today in the crowd probably there's fun and also anfal who part of my team if they around uh yeah they just on top and Etc so hopefully we can try to support you guys moving forward and mdex also a silver sponsor for the event so thank you very much no worries and lastly PA right so I'm TAA and I'm actually from 42 kumur um so some of you may actually not know how many of you have heard of 42 kumur before right that's great um so uh we mentioned about funding we mentioned about um building in Malaysia and stuff like that but at the at the end of the day you also need talents to build how many of you are looking for talents when you're building right so it's always a problem so that's where we actually come in uh so we are a three-year-old organization in Malaysia we're part of um Sunway Innovation lab which is the corporate Innovation arm of Sunway who also do Venture building uh startup Investments um accelerator programs and so on um so what we do is that we build talents uh we are targeting at building 10,000 highly skilled digital talents uh over 10 years so at the end of the day um in order to support the ecosystem we need talance and that's exactly what we do and we'll go with TAA for the next question first um so obviously building in Malaysia the first question I can think of other than introduction is what are the benefits of building in Malaysia like why would it matter compared to building in some other country right so uh in the last few years um a lot of startups from Japan Korea and also um UK very recently has been wanting to establish themselves in Malaysia so they all come through our accelerator program that we actually do very specifically for them uh and when we ask what what's the reason to actually bring them over uh they always mention two things so number one ease of doing business is comparatively decent uh in Malaysia in comparison to to uh multiple other places even though we might think not but it is uh for them they actually say that it's actually quite easy for them to actually come to Malaysia and establish themselves here before they take a step to countries like Indonesia uh Thailand and so on um and the second mention is on our talents so our talents pool can actually speak Mandarin very well uh they can actually speak English and they can also speak Malay so if you think about it Mandarin China is a great uh Leap Forward for them English pretty much the entire region right and then uh you also have Malay which is very useful for them to actually establish connections with the Indonesian um and so that's these are the two main things that they actually always tell us that it's really important uh for them to to uh to be part of Malaysia uh when they actually start is the same thing for any companies when it comes to the web three space and thenes from the government's point of view okay um very interesting right uh maybe let me just give you a bit of snapshot about the talent pool of digital talent in Malaysia currently MDC has around 3,000 digital companies that we track various H it covers all bread uh including cyber security blockchain and Etc and all this today there around 210,000 for what we call it knowledge workers or digital Talent 10 close to 90% is local right uh 90% after 27 years of uh driving the digital economy uh I think the uh amount of talent pool is quite mature uh as of this moment and that also Echo to what you have really mentioned just now um let's look at it like this right um Malaysia in these current times right uh is very unique uh our talent or Malaysian Talent particularly right has one particular key Advantage uh since Independence we are the only nation that has uh diversity you know and this is quite important right we going to operate a global idea a Global Hub and you want to run this out of a particular location you need this kind of talent to work with around the world or within the region so if you're my opinion right uh that is something very very key of course if you were to look at bigger Talent pools like like uh India and China billions of population and Etc uh there are different NES one thing I know from some of the people have met across this event right uh and particularly Builders from uh Malaysia uh one thing they see is Quality quality I think is something that we are good at uh and that is something that we really need to leverage out of here second thing is is about solving problems right creativity in that sense right in this part of the region right I think Malaysians uh have have a neck for this uh and that is something that we should Leverage for Innovation grow just some of my thoughts on that and Matt as the OG Builder so I think uh both til and KES have covered the points I want to cover so uh to something up right uh it's and we were actually having this conversation uh yesterday during lunch uh it's diversity by default right uh and so we are really unique in this position right uh so there are obviously some countries where I think there are workplace policies where you know diversity has to be built into that system uh but in Malaysia right uh it's diversity by default so it comes naturally to us uh so much sure that we don't really know it's there until we actually start going abroad and and uh uh immersing yourself in uh other environments that that so it's one of those things like where know you have to actually go out to see that what you have here is pretty good so that's how I want to sum it up and in general right I think um perhaps it's from that diversity also we're actually quite adaptable like we will adapt right uh and maybe it's through the history the culture uh even going back into history and stuff right a lot of uh the makeup of Malaysia uh uh Malaysian uh immigrants right so I think it's just build thing you will you will adapt uh if it's hard then you adapt if it's easy then you take it easy so and U the other thing as a Founder yeah I know if you if you compare so obviously cost of living inflation is something that affects all of us right so there's no escaping for that that's the way the world is but relatively speaking right if you compare let's say some of our neighbors down south right uh it's not the cost living here is relatively lower uh when and you can actually get I mean obviously we all want to do better but you know for that same amount of money the you can get a a pretty good quality of life down here in in Malaysia yeah and on that note Matt just um since you mentioned the diversity by default thing uh and you know in web tree people work of from everywhere in the world uh from your experience over the last um more than 10 years in this space is um what's something different about the work life or the work culture in Malaysia versus in other countries especially in web 3 uh work culture so I don't think har I don't think it's just web three right it's more the the entire culture uh so I'm going to say this in a in a so in on a more of a positive note positive note uh so we're generally for forward is word I think we're generally more laid back in right uh that's the way it is so maybe on the plus point we don't get burn out as much as fast I guess you look at some of the other countries like I'm not going to name the countries but again I think it's much more stressful there would tend to be more Chex a little bit more relax uh but but I say this in a a good way right because as as a builder right one of the things that you want is you want persistence you want G the ability to move forward consistency right so I think you burn out too fast right right not good now you go up there then you go down again um so yeah so that's one of the other things uh the other things of course there's definitely a lot of tea times and breaks but again that's that's fine so the positive side right I the way I look at it and what I shared my teammate over there is he used to call it team bonding all right so you have that team bonding doing your t t sessions uh yeah and maybe there's a reason why it this can has been there for uh a long time for better us uh hopefully not burn out not for a while uh when uh it's only fair that I asked benefits uh of Malaysia that then I ask the opposite question of what are some disadvantages because we're not here to Shield Malaysia necessarily um so what are some disadvantages of uh building in Malaysia and maybe Danesh can start asking the girl it's better to ask to the actually to the builders themselves about that to be for a real honest question answer I would say but uh actually um if you want to speak about uh bia's uh disadvantages right I would rather say is what can Malaysia actually learn right let's let's look for example right let's be really honest sir Vietnam Vietnam is a hub or build a builder Hub currently now very hot within the region but they have one problem they are very good at efficiency they are very good at efficiency following and creating what is being instructed that's their skill right and that's their strength right and this there's a lot of volume that is going over there this is nothing new this concept even in the one of the very mature Industries like the BP industry uh and Etc right the same concept is also there why do companies locate is B basically based on three key things or where the demand is number one is the availability of talent number two is cause of doing business right and then of course number three is how is the ecosystem going to be so if we look from that perspective right if Malaysia wants to learn right how do we scale right how do we get our Builders to create projects or drive demand of projects that would be tangible and usable to the traditional economies I give you an example right recently uh uh I met a com a few companies trying to sell blockchain to e-commerce uh parties uh I would not say who are the names of those e-commerce parties but probably you all know already who are the major ones uh and then the e-commerce parties did mention why fix why try to go and recreate the wheel when something is working so well right why introduce blockchain to something that is really doing awesome currently now that's the issue right where are the practical solutions that is going to happen so now when I was talking to this at a recent Congress World Congress of it I was having a conversation with another blockchain company special specifically Canadian one specifically uh specializing in payment they said the pitch should be different right so try to think about this smmes that are transacting cross border using any of those uh platforms right they have one big issue settlement of payment if you're doing crossb settlement of payment takes a few days if you have a solution that is blackbox using blockchain and that blockchain uses the settlement using crypto or whatever then you have to DET instantly so that is the solution the Canadian blockchain company is providing that's practical that impacts a lot of people that is what we need to do to create that value in Malaysia eer sc's business is sustainable as far as we see they are Global player we have coin gcko we hope to create more of this from the likes of the Builders of the future and that would be the inent that we really want to do thanks and ta next yeah so I just really want to Echo what he mentioned right so at the end of the day um when it comes to like building it's really about solving a particular problem that the industry needs so most of the time we build for fund which is a great thing but at the same time when you want to scale it further and then you start looking for funding uh and then we always say oh Malaysia a lot of Builders will always oh Malaysia we don't have funding and everything but from the WIC perspective uh when we actually talked to our own wi's and everything they mentioned actually we have the fund but when we talk to the builders they always mention that oh this is something that we're doing but we are not actually trying to solve anything so it's always about uh products trying to find a problem so that's a huge huge huge problem right so that's the challenge so we need to think about how um we create our products right so again a couple of different things that I can also mention in Malaysia we have at about 55% of uh population who actually knows about blockch chain technology and also crypto and we have a very very good penetration for crypto Assets in Malaysia as well so but when it comes to the smmes when it comes to the corporate companies when we talk to them they always say actually we are interested in these things but they always the first thing that came come to their mind when I actually run workshops with them corporate Innovation Workshops the first thing that they will say is uh like wood clouds right so like 60% 60 participants there we'll do work Cloud what's the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about blockchain also cryptocurrencies fraud RP right all of these negativity are the ones that appears first not the opportunities but why so we need to change this mindset to them we need to be able to ocate to them now how we do it as Builders so to Showcase to them that there is solutions for their problems we don't necessarily have to say oh this is solved by using blockchain no as long as it actually solves their problem they actually don't give a them whether it's actually a blockchain solution or not the first thing that they'll always ask is how come I can't do this with web two solutions right so we need to change that perspective but when you do there's a huge amount of potential in Malaysia because one great example I would say Sunway universities is adopting digital certification in the blockchain uh using blockchain for their digital certification and that's a problem that is required for them to solve right because a lot of the times the problem is that they're trying to solve is um when companies want to verify someone they always have to call and there are 10,000 students actually more than 10,000 students they want to actually call every single one of them to try and verify them right so there must be a more practical way so yeah that's just one example and uh mat I'll just uh chime in covered a lot really um so so when when you talk about web three right uh so traditionally when you're building General Tech right it's always the ecosystem you know the networks and stuff that like like um so again something I talked about about uh when it comes to web tree it's actually relatively easier uh the reason being is know that that Network portion not it is supposed to be decentralized right so that's the the premise it might not be fully there yet but I think it's definitely moving towards that so when you talk about uh battery and stuff then you have the the benefits of uh access to data and ship so you've remove uh basically you remove one hurdle there um as an entrepreneur um so we have a lot of talented folks here that that goes without saying uh but again Malaysia is in a unique position in sense that if you look at the population right uh in comparison let's say Obviously we not as small as Singapore but we're not as large as as Vietnam so so then again you look at stuff like your so obviously with lesser numbers you have smaller Talent po to choose from as compared to Vietnam where you know in terms of demographics uh it's a younger crowd uh very focused on stem um so I think that kind of presents a a challenge uh if you if you want to uh you need access to a lot of young younger Talent okay I like how generally it's not so much advantages but things to learn from uh for Danesh uh next question um what are some opportunities for maybe Internationals or Nomads uh who want to be building out of Malaysia like what can they um look for uh in Malaysia sure so this is um I think this is very very important right despite also looking at the local agenda that I shared about right about developing Malaysia one of the key things is we need the support of Global Talent globally this is no way are we going to build a good ecosystem here without the support of all our regional part uh neighbors and all our Global neighbors some of the best talent are all over the world Malaysia needs to capitalize on that and use this as an opportunity to create a hub here uh moving forward right so for nads right we already have a nomad Visa we launched it last year right some of I heard some of you members have already are part of that we hope to encourage the usage of that right to drive that particular uh agenda we have also uh what we call it mtap uh it's a tech entrepreneur pass a man for Founders who creating companies uh uh here in Malaysia but something also I wanted to share right for the benefit of uh both the uh foreign entrepreneurs or foreign bu Builders uh and also in fact domestically right the government is really offering um all types of incentives right uh we're offering fiscal which is uh tax breaks or Etc to support companies uh or Builders or Etc to create opportunities around this area we also have grants right the reason and also something that I just want to share just so that everyone is aware of this right the recent budget announcement uh by the government of Malaysia they granted 1.5 billion ring to support startups and what happened was in the star you can just go it's not public it's not my it's not my opinion right it is in the public the president of the association mentioned why allocate money to startups with unproven business models when the money should go to mature uh business models now now again right from our perspective right we are bipartisan right uh Innovation comes from startups scale is when startups become smmes right and I think that is something that we must support continuously so there are funds that is being allocated to drive you know foreign Builders local Builders to leverage and grow from Malaysia right and how you want to access this there many parties in uh in the government that have that uh capabilities to do so so do reach out to us uh offline uh for us to help support that particular inent Etc right and Kila um so 42 is expanding I think quite aggressively across Malaysia um so can you expand a bit more on on kind of why you're doing that and and why you think that Malaysia is this uh talent pool that maybe some of the web tree Builders here who are not from Malaysia can potentially look at yeah so great stuff right so it's echoing from what um denish mentioned about talent pool earlier as well right um so thankfully um when 42 started in Malaysia we wanted to solve uh a couple of problems number one pace of education is slow in the way that if you think about it uh let's just say University wants to create a blockchain uh course um or any other type of like new technology like AI stuff like that it takes about one year for them to create the course um develop get approval from the Ministry of Education and then after that um they actually need to go through three years of education to get that degree before they come out as a talent that's four years that's four iPhone Generations right so Tech Trend moves really really fast we need to be very very fast right so that's the biggest problem that we were try to solve and the second is that companies come to us and say hey we have so many talents but they can't really fit with the industry because they not Plug and Play they still have to retrain them for about six months Tech vacancies uh sometimes it takes about 3 months for them to actually fill up so there is the this problem that we were trying to solve and how can we solve this with alternative education so very very interestingly uh mdec was the one who actually uh approached Sunway so uh very helpful for that and they mentioned that we are actually uh very keen to support how we can do alternative education uh and our education model is completely free so you don't have to pay a single scent even after you get a job right so when we did this um we're part of this network called 42 uh which is in like 52 different cities around the world started in Paris um so it is already a global talent pool um for pretty much everyone and in Malaysia uh when we started it we were a bit skeptical in the beginning because of the business model uh but we had a lot of corporate Partners who said actually we will fund this um and as long as we can actually build that Talent Pipeline and we've been here for three years and we've produced like more than 350 digital talents uh and our school has no teachers so which means these type of talents are extremely resourceful like d mention Malaysians are problem solvers and they're very adaptive and you throw them into this environment they do very well having said that um we also looked into the opportunities now we need to be able to not just focus on K there's too much focus in K right so we need to get out of the K stuff and just very recently about 4 days ago uh the chief minister of Pang uh has just launched 42 Pang so we are expending uh to make sure that thank you yeah so every one there has that opportunity as well and we also have 42 in isanda joho which is close to our border Singapore as well so that's great and in the next one to two years we are looking at uh expending to Mei uh Kuching and also kotakinabalu to make sure that we are able to produce so thank you how many of you have 42 students here yeah it's quite a number of them actually probably preparing for the pitch later right so it's a proven model um and we get all the corporate Partners to actually take up this talents and of course um when building we need talents without talents you can't build you can have the fun you can have a billion dollars but if you can't get the right type of talent to be in your company we can't and the other thing is we are not restricting the talents to be Malaysians only it's open to 17 and above but anyone from any part of the world can actually come and be part of it and it is still free for them we have a lot of talents from Indonesia coming in uh we have talents from Middle East coming in we have a lot of like different varieties so it's it's really a talent uh digital Talent Hub I would say all right and for Matt uh I think we have maybe time for like a couple last questions but for Matt specifically um you've met a lot of Builders from around the world in web tree um what are some maybe unique characteristics of Malaysian builders that you've seen compared to people from other places um uh um oh yeah yeah that's it it's I think I can sum it up and say a yeah so uh so I'm just going to take like a more uh relaxed approach I'm going to follow that malan style right uh so I think what's really unique is if you go into an office of a Malaysian typical malan company or even a startup right the language and the food right uh it's always interesting um so like obviously uh so you go to us so everyone speaks English right but you go into the uh Malaysian setup right then you will find groups of people speaking dialects and then you have manglish and then you have obviously Malay and a combination of uh three or four languages put together I don't I just find that really unique and and and and special so I think that that's what makes it special food is always good sorry having good food in m is always good yeah I want to start off with say we have a strong foodie culture uh but eat healthy please and final question um so for the people here in the audience or anyone who's watching online like what can they do to help uh build um Malaysia or help specifically in ethereum or web 3 how can they help to build Malaysia to be the next uh sort of Global Hub and maybe mat can start um so I think everyone here is already doing it right show your support to the local community and so give yourself a CL right um and I think the other thing that if you want to do right uh so this this is like a obviously a much more we question but figure out one thing that you can do and focus that thing if everyone does that one bit small part right it adds up you have a crowd of 100 folks you do 1% that adds up to 100% so figure out why you want to contribute whether it's supporting your local community or or just getting the word out or being part of the community or building something yeah and good next yeah uh I would say eat K is is amazing and we have a very strong uh eat community in right so that's it's very very important because uh let's just come from the talent perspective for talents they're always looking for opportunities and how do they come about opportunities when they have events like this when they have growing community and when the people who are participating in these communities are actively helping um those who are building up or buding up talents right so that Synergy is so so important because at the end of the day these are the talents that you would want to take into your pipeline to be part of of your company and to grow together so I think yeah what e is doing for example is just very amazing and we need more of that thank you and denish okay the last one um okay so um I think you've heard a lot from the conversations here today uh but what I want to really share about in terms of how do we really scale this right scale the Builder Community how do we scale more web free blockchain stuff here in Malaysia um the concept of blockchain is decentralized right let's be really honest right there's in in fact even in Malaysia uh I think uh myself F anfal my team members and Etc we spend close to one year and a half uh trying to gauge the community all right uh uh meeting up with various parties and Etc um and the concept of decentralized means differing views right on things and Etc but to be really honest with you right um if you want change and growth to be accelerated it has to come from a unifying front from all differing views I'm telling you why because this is the same thing in all the other verticals that is happening now cyber security the global business services and the various other AIS all are coming together to have that singular view the government only wants to listen to a singular View right and this has to be coming from a front of multiple people Builders businessmen and Etc so I think this is my message to all of you all I mean um we have here uh members from the association access blockchain we work closely with them uh Arvin Jason they're sitting here uh we uh we are working closely with them we wish to work close together with the other fraternities e KL the of chain community and Etc and many others to come under united front to drive this growth moving forward only by doing this can we move faster and hopefully benefit everyone uh in the long run that's all I want to share in terms of that direction and ex this all right and with that uh please everyone thank the panel for sharing the audience and back to you Ross all right thank you very much to all the speakers I welcome you back to your seats let's give them another big big round of applause as well as to our moderator harit who did a fantastic job so you guys have heard there's definitely a lot of interest in the industry there's a lot of government funding and grants as well under the new budget so Projects please get connected with the right people they are here in the audience you know you can talk to M you can talk to access blockchain they are the ones that can put you in front of the right people in front of the right funding to get it for your project okay we want all projects suck