YOUTHS URGED TO VENTURE INTO DIGITAL MAPPING FIELD TO FACE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 4.0 -- MYSPATIAL

By S. Kisho Kumari

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) -- Youths need to venture into the field of digital mapping technology to expand their businesses besides preparing for Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0).

According to MySpatial Sdn Bhd managing director Mohd Syarmy Shamsuddin, digital mapping is a very broad and new field with less than 20 per cent of the industrial sector using this technology in their business.

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"Our vision is to help plantation companies use digital mapping technology with the hope that the technology developed by MySpatial can be used by youths, especially in the plantation sector, which will lead to digital use in the future," he told Bernama.

Malaysia is one of the countries with high usage of the drone technology, especially as a hobby among youths, he said.

“It is unfortunate that despite their enthusiasm for this hobby, the youths are not leveraging this technology as a catalyst to venture into business,” he said.

MySpatial was incorporated in 2009. It is involved in geospatial technology, information and communications technology (ICT) and research and development.

The company also provides professional services and supplies products to the government and private sectors including 3D virtual tours, drone technology in agriculture, digital mapping, and drone usage in infrastructure and construction.

Mohd Syarmy said MySpatial has considered Malaysia's preparedness in the plantation and agriculture sector to raise the country's income via IR 4.0.

"How ready are we for IR 4.0. It will be quite difficult for us to optimise income if we do not implement digital (transformation) because this technology can help the government to reduce foreign labour," he said.

He said it is clear that Malaysia is still grappling with labour and job efficiency issues and high costs.

At the same time, the plantation and agriculture sector can save costs with the latest technology compared with using helicopters to assess an area or a large land area.

"After we implemented this technology and input the developed technology, we found that businesses are able to save millions of ringgit using valuation mapping," he said.

Mohd Syarmy said there are about six million hectares of plantations in Malaysia comprising over 200,000 smallholders.

“If we continue to use the old method of doing things, we envisioned how plantations, especially the oil palm (sector), will operate when replanting and realigning their plantations without the use of technology.

"If the latest technological inputs are not included, they will not be able to get the expected yield (they are seeking after)," he said.

MySpatial was awarded as an MSC-status company in 2014 by the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corp (MDEC) for being a rapidly growing ICT organisation. It currently operates from UPM-MTDC Technology Centre, Serdang.

"Malaysian Technology Development Corp (MTDC) also helped us at the initial stage when we were divided into two phases, that is, satellite image technology and drone usage.

"Drone technology was quite advanced at that time, so my partner and I went abroad to survey its technological usage. This industry can be rather prohibitive and our capabilities were limited," he said.

MTDC provided aid via the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox (NTIS) programme and financial assistance such as grants to help MySpatial accelerate growth through the acquisition of sophisticated equipment.

-- BERNAMA