KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — Selangor’s openness and willingness to adopt new technologies and drive policy reform positions it as a strong competitor in the region’s digital economy, said Hannover Messe representative Tim Bostridge.
The Hannover Fairs Australia and Asia Pacific managing director said the state’s initiatives demonstrate clear preparedness to translate potential into action through forward-looking policies and decisive implementation.
Citing state’s initiative Teraju AI, which is in partnership with Google, Bostridge said such collaborations show Selangor is open and focused on implementing technological development to drive the future of manufacturing and industrial processes.
Teraju AI is a three-year artificial intelligence (AI) plan introduced on March 24, in collaboration with Google Cloud Malaysia, to develop AI-driven solutions for state administration and serve as the foundation for AI adoption in state governance.
“We saw Google has partnered with the state government to help them automate some really crucial processes to save them (and) ourselves a great deal of time, money, and make the lives of the people who are interacting with them considerably more simplified.
“It’s those kinds of initiatives that show that there is potential here. Potential is everywhere, but to realise it, you’ve got to have the policy settings, the initiatives, and the motivation to take advantage of it.
“That’s what you have here at the moment, that willingness to learn and that willingness to implement these technologies, where perhaps, in other places, it’s not as open to those sorts of changes. But change is inevitable, and it will happen. It’s great that Malaysia and Selangor are open to that happening,” he told Media Selangor when met at the Selangor Techsphere Summit 2025 on Tuesday.
The inaugural two-day event, held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, was the first technology event hosted by a state government that was supported by Hannover Messe, the world’s premier trade fair for industrial technology.
Bostridge said Malaysia holds strong prospects for deploying critical technologies that will shape the next phase of industrial processing and manufacturing.
He said the summit was timely to spotlight the key technological issues shaping the future of industries.
“As a global platform, it’s obviously important that we are tapping into a number of markets around the world, regional markets.
“The situation here in Malaysia is one where there’s an incredible amount of potential for progress, for the deployment of a number of these critical technologies that are going to form the future of the industrial processing and manufacturing world going forward.
“It’s a very good time now to be here and to highlight some of the key issues that we’re talking about at the summit over the next two days, and that will hopefully bring some benefit to the local ecosystem and help them to understand and plan for what the future will bring,” he said.
Bostridge said he hopes the engagement with Selangor would lead to a long-term partnership that benefits both the state and Malaysia, adding that understanding community feedback and reviewing results with government partners to evaluate what has been accomplished are essential to an ongoing collaboration.
“We’re certainly hoping that this is the start of the longer-term partnership, and we have to have those conversations. But I think in terms of what we need to do to get moving, it is that conversation much earlier, and making sure that we can have the time to plan and to go into a lot of the other associations and organisations in this space and align everyone’s activities towards one central spot.
“This is certainly an important platform that we’re really pleased to be a part of and to be able to support how that plays out in conjunction with the other events that we work with. We have to plan that, obviously, and that’s the next stage. That’s where we go after this event; it’s understanding what that looks like for next year,” he said.
On Tuesday, in his welcoming remarks, Bostridge said Selangor’s rise as a hub for advanced technology and innovation reflects its ambition to drive Malaysia’s innovation landscape.
He said the state’s growing prominence and progressive policies reflect its strategic base in technology and high-value industries, which led to the collaboration between the state government and Hannover Messe in organising the Selangor Techsphere Summit 2025.
