Cyberjaya
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cyberjaya is a new planned township with a science park as the core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in the district of Sepang, Selangor and is situated about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This town aspires to be known as the Silicon Valley of Malaysia.
The official opening ceremony for Cyberjaya was held in May 1997 by then Prime Minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad.
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The idea of an IT-themed city, Cyberjaya, arose out of a study by management consultancy McKinsey for the Multimedia Super Corridor commissioned by the Federal Government of Malaysia in 1995. The implementation agency was the Town & Planning Department of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. The catalyst is the agreement by NTT in 1996 to site an R&D center at a site to the west of the new administration center, Putrajaya.
Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC), the agency for implementing the MSC was located in Cyberjaya to oversee the creation. The real estate implementation was privatized to Cyberview Sdn Bhd in early 1997, comprising of subsidiaries of local companies Peremba, Renong, MK Land, County Heights, Golden Hope and companies of Selangor state government. Federal government linked companies Telekom Malaysia and Tenaga Nasional were conscripted to provide the infrastructure. The ambitious plan is to fully develop the city in 6 years. The engineering management consultant, Pengurusan Lebuhraya Bhd (now acquired by Opus International Malaysia) was appointed to manage the construction of utilities and infrastructure, overseeing major construction firms of Peremba and United Engineers Malaysia.
The central theme for the development is providing a quantum jump in standards, summarized as follows:
- a leading edge multimedia centre that will attract world-class multimedia/IT companies;
- sophisticated and state-of-the-art integrated infrastructure and IT system; and
- sophisticated and efficien transportation systems with and emphasis on public transport
However, the late 1997 Asian financial crisis exposed the heavy debt liability of Cyberview due to land acquisition. A restructuring plan was developed with Cyberview becoming the landowner only. Development is to be carried out by a company comprising Peremba, Renong, MK Land, and County Heights, spun out as Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd. A further buyout of Peremba and Country Heights in 2003 saw MK Land as the major shareholder of Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd. However, lackluster sale performance by MK Land saw money in short supply to maintain the infrastructure.
Cyberview Sdn Bhd, which remained a government company and landowner, in 2005 was tasked with maintaining the public infrastructure in Cyberjaya, together with the Sepang District Council.
Spanning an area of about 28.94 square kilometres (7,000 acres), the town is the nucleus of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The site for Cyberjaya was primarily undeveloped land consisting of oil palm plantations. It has since seen extensive building activities including a small mall, a boutique hotel, and numerous commercial buildings.
It was built to be the city of the future, but no actual goals towards this end have been announced. The Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) (formerly MDC), the agency tasked with spearheading the MSC's progress also has its headquarters in the heart of Cyberjaya.
A number of companies who qualify for MSC incentives have relocated to Cyberjaya. Among them are IBM, Shell IT, EDS, Vivanova Systems and others. Currently, over 250 multinational companies have located their operations here, making the township a rapidly growing area.
An early component of Cyberjaya was the Multimedia University, known locally as MMU. The university's enrolment is currently about 12,000 students. Faculty departments include Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Information Technology, Creative Multimedia, Business and Economics(Management). Like Cyberjaya, MMU recently turned 10.
Most of the city’s early inhabitants were university students and the population received a boost when the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) opened.
Recent additions to Cyberjaya in 2006 includes the Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences(CUCMS) which has recently opened for enrolment. Also, there is a Sekolah Seri Puteri which is a National Secondary Full Boarding School (Malay: Sekolah Berasrama Penuh) for girls.
To cater for schoolgoing children of the general population of Cyberjaya, there are also primary (Sekolah Kebangsaan Cyberjaya) & secondary (Sekolah Menengah Cyberjaya) public schools provided in Cyberjaya. The student population is about 350 and 750 for the primary & the secondary schools respectively.
As an emerging township, Cyberjaya now has a Police Station Complex, and a Fire Station (Bomba). Apart from that, Cyberjaya sports a small recreational park just next to Multimedia University and a larger recreational park (but currently run-down) known as Cyberpark. It also has a lovely lakeside park called Taman Tasik Cyberjaya.
Cyberview Sdn Bhd has plans to perk up life in the city and is serious about community development. As landowner, it presides over 2,894ha and was handed a bigger mandate to develop the land as a result of re-structuring. With the 2005 Budget came a shift in physical development guidelines.
“We intend to inject Cyberjaya with community-centred activities like the Sports Carnival held at the Sports Arena for the anniversary. The Cyberjaya Community Recreation Club is also set to open by year-end,” said Cyberview Sdn Bhd managing director Redza Rafiq.
The club offers practically everything under one roof - badminton, squash and tennis courts; table tennis and snooker room, swimming pool, gym, function hall, jogging track and a futsal court complete with artificial grass.
The jogging track beside the Cyberjaya Lake connects to the Cyberjaya Lake Garden. Cyberview handles the park and general maintenance in Cyberjaya and works with the Sepang Municipal Council.
There is limited nightlife in Cyberjaya. There is Hops and Grapes (a pub located at Century Square) and Treehaus (at Cyberview Lodge Resort and Spa). Old Town White Coffee has also entered the F&B scene at Prima Avenue. There is also an English Pub located in the food court, which is next to the Shell Office in Century Square (Wisma-1).
Cyberjaya is approximately 40 minutes by road from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, 30 minutes from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and less than one hour from Port Klang, the nation's main port.
It is connected to all main business districts of Kuala Lumpur by a network of highways. Major expressways serving the area are the North South Expressway E 1 E 2, the North-South Expressway Central Link E 6 that connects Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya to the KL International Airport, the Puchong to Dengkil on Putrajaya-Cyberjaya Expressway B15. Various other arterial roads provide local connections to surrounding areas to Putrajaya, Serdang, Puchong and Dengkil.
There is a railway station beside Cyberjaya in Putrajaya Sentral as part of the ERL network with the KLIA Transit passing through every 30 mins. KLIA Ekspres railway line passes almost the whole length of Cyberjaya's eastern border. There are feeder buses that run from the Putrajaya ERL station to rest of Putrajaya and Cyberjaya. These buses are timed to match with the timing of the train services and cost RM1 for travel within the circle. Cyberjaya also features a single bus terminal, known as the Cyberjaya Transport Terminal. Taxis are also available at the Cyberjaya Transport Terminal.
In March 2006, 1 Utama introduced a new shuttle coach service to and from Cyberjaya. The shuttle service costs RM3.00 per trip (coupons need to be purchased at 1 Utama's Customer Information Counter). Apart from that, starting on 1st July 2006. as part of Rapid KL's efforts to revamp the bus services, the old 868 bus service has been discontinued. Under the new system, the bus system in Cyberjaya has been zoned for service under Rapid KL under Area 4. As such, the new shuttle buses currently serving Cyberjaya consist of bus no. 428 & no. 429. Also, it's been said there is a Sri Indah bus, which is following the same route taken over the old 868 bus route service and at the same rate too.
As of 2005, Cyberjaya still lacks significant residential properties apart from the D'Melor condos, the Cyberia condo and townhouses. This results in de-population of the area when office workers commute home every night.
The Cyberview Lodge Spa Resorts also have a few Villas managed by them, which are situated just across the road from the Spa Hotel. The name of the Villas is Cyberview Garden Villas. They offer apartments for both short and longer stays. The hotel reception has all the required information.
Most people living in Cyberjaya are knowledge workers in the 250 companies located in the township as well as students from Multimedia University and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT).
Apart from that, those who commute to Cyberjaya normally live in the areas nearby to Cyberjaya due to high costs. Thus, many working or studying in Cyberjaya normally live in Dengkil, Kota Warisan (a suburb of Salak Tinggi, Serdang, Sri Kembangan, Putrajaya and also Puchong.
The day population in Cyberjaya is about 29,000 but the number dwindles, as there are only 10,000 residents. For some multi-national companies operating around-the-clock, it is work as usual even during the quiet of the night.
Cyberjaya is planned as an intelligent city with multimedia industries, R&D centers, a Multimedia University and operational headquarters for multinationals wishing to direct their world-wide manufacturing and trading activities using multimedia technology.
Toward this end, leading edge technologies were used, some with mixed results.
To support the aspiration to host multimedia industries, Cyberjaya was specified with extensive and intensive fiber optic cabling. As Malaysia's premier IT hub, Cyberjaya has a communication backbone running primarily on fibre optics known as Cyberjaya Metro Fibre Network (CMFN). CMFN delivers the fiber connectivity straight to the building under the concepts of “Fibre-To-The-Building (FTTB)” and “Fibre-To-The-Home(FTTH)”. With the ring topology; it secures full redundancy throughout the network. As such, many data centres are located here. However, some commercial and residential units still use copper lines to provide "last mile" access to customers. Broadband access covering wireless and fixed line is readily available. Broadband access is serviced primarily by City Broadband, TMnet, MyKris, NTT MSC(formerly ARCnet) and recently Air Broadband which has announced its test pilot plans in Cyberjaya for Wimax. There also exists a small Pos Malaysia post office in the Cyberjaya Transport Terminal.
The Cyberjaya planning guidelines strongly required two electricity connections from two separate substations. Diesel generators up to full load (except air conditioning load) were specified to be installed in all commercial building. The electricity grid connection was also organized to enable “power islanding” and supported by the Serdang Power Station. The electricity service standard is set at 99.99% availability with maximum of 10 seconds interruption for office and commercial areas and maximum 15 minutes interruption for residential areas. These measures were dreamed up to provide Cyberjaya with a comparative advantage against other areas outside the Multimedia Super Corridor. However, Tenaga Nasional has extended the same standard to all urban areas connected to the National Grid in Malaysia.
The use of district cooling system, where chilled water from a central plant is provided to run the air conditioning, was laid extensively in the central district. The promise is the economical use of off-peak electricity at night to chill water for the air conditioning use during the day. However, the promised benefits did not materialize as the individual building central plants can be provided at lower initial cost.
The grandly named City Command Center (C3I) is planned as a control center to monitor city services and provide municipal government services to the public. Advanced systems such as SCADA, GIS, municipal systems and electronic payment systems were installed. However, some systems installed such as pneumatic tubes and payment counters were overtaken by the internet technology and the City Command Center is a failure due to the poor business model and implementation.
Several data centers operate in Cyberjaya. Notable are those operated by Shell, BMW and DHL.
Several call centers operate in Cyberjaya. Notables are those operated by HSBC and DHL.
Initially 8 blocks of office buildings were built by the developer. These are purpose built for multimedia companies by being provided extra height ceiling and under floor trunking (some with raised floor), fiber optic wiring, dual redundant power supply, uninterruptible power supply and back up generators for whole electricity load, which common practice in Malaysia is only to 30% load.
- Town & Country Planning Department, Malaysia (2000), Urban Design Guidelines for Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Selangor Town & Country Planning Department
- Multimedia Development Corporation (2003), Guidelines on Telecommunication Infrastructure & Facilities Provisioning for Buildings in MSC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Multimedia Development Corporation
- Intelligent city gets residents’ thumbs up, The Star, November 25, 2006
- Government moves to recover RM242 million from InventQjaya Sdn Bhd, The Star, July 8, 2006
- Setia Haruman, Master Developer of Cyberjaya Official Website
- Cyberjaya Facilities & Contacts
- Comprehensive Cyberjaya map by MDeC
- Cyberview Lodge Resorts Spa & Cyber View Garden Villas
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| MSC Centre | Cyberjaya |
| MSC Area | Klang Valley |
| MSC Major Landmarks | Petronas Twin Towers • Kuala Lumpur Tower • Kuala Lumpur Sentral • Technology Park Malaysia • Putrajaya • Cyberjaya • Kuala Lumpur International Airport |
| MSC Infrastructure | Express Rail Link • Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya Expressway |
| MSC Prime Applications | e-Government • MyKad |