16/05/2012 (The Star) - The progress update in relation to smart communities and Digital Malaysia will dominate discussions at the 2nd meeting of the Global Science and Innovations Advisory Council (GSIAC) to be chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today.

The year-old GSIAC is an alliance among stakeholders, collaborators, competitors and partners in the area of biomass, smart communities and human capacity building.

Najib, who arrived here yesterday on a three-day working visit, will meet science experts at the gathering to be held at the New York Academy of Sciences at the World Trade Centre here.

The human capacity building initiative will address the lack of interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among students.

In the areas of palm oil and biomass, the Malaysian Biomass Initiatives launched on Nov 21 last year is designed to substantially increase high-skilled jobs and add billions of ringgit to national revenue by converting waste from the country's massive palm oil industry into green industrial chemicals, biofuels and other products.

In the area of smart communities, GSIAC, the New York Academy of Sciences and Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) with the collaboration of other organisations such as MDeC, Iskandar Malaysia and Pemandu are working to develop a “Smart City-Smart Village”.

The initiative aims to explore ways in which to balance Malaysia's rapid urbanisation and rural development with environmental concerns through the application of green technology and ICT.

To kick off the initiative, the GSIAC facilitated a workshop in Kuala Lumpur last October which brought together executives from local companies, cabinet ministers as well as technology experts from multinational companies.

In Phase II, the GSIAC will work with the New York Academy of Sciences and MIGHT to develop an integrative roadmap for Malaysia to determine priority areas.