KUALA LUMPUR • Alibaba Group will set up a traffic control system harnessing artificial intelligence for Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, its first such service outside China, as the e-commerce giant pushes to grow its cloud computing business.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, yesterday said it planned to make live traffic predictions and recommendations to increase traffic efficiency in Kuala Lumpur by crunching data gathered from video footage, traffic bureaus, public transport systems and mapping apps.
It is partnering state agency Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) and the Kuala Lumpur city council to roll out the initiative, called City Brain, which will be localised and integrated with 500 inner-city cameras by May.
The partnership comes after Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak launched an "e-hub" facility last year, part of an initiative aimed at removing trade barriers for smaller firms and emerging nations.
Alibaba Cloud, which set up a data centre in Malaysia last year, is considering a second one to further develop a local ecosystem, its president Simon Hu said yesterday.
He declined to elaborate on the company's total investment made and planned for in Malaysia, but said it was "no small amount" and that the investments would continue if there was demand for cloud computing technologies.
MDEC chief executive officer Yasmin Mahmood said there was no estimate of City Brain's impact on traffic in Kuala Lumpur yet.
The traffic management system in the Chinese city of Hangzhou had resulted in reports of traffic violations with up to 92 per cent accuracy, emergency vehicles reaching their destinations in half the time, and an overall increase in traffic speed by 15 per cent.
Datuk Seri Najib has forged close ties with China in recent years.
Last year, the Malaysian leader announced a slew of infrastructure projects, many funded by China, as he worked up momentum towards a general election he must call by the middle of this year.
REUTERS
