SMEs lack structured platforms to showcase capabilities

Published on: Saturday, July 04, 2026

By: Crystal E Hermenegildus

According to Izwan, such competitions would provide fair benchmarking among industry players while giving SMEs an opportunity to prove their capabilities to potential clients.

Kota Kinabalu: More industry-led AI competitions and hackathons using real operational data should be organised to help Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) demonstrate their capabilities and compete in the oil and gas sector, said Vice President of Malaysian Business Council UAE, Izwan Adnan.

Speaking during the “Driving Energy Innovation Through Technology” session at the Sabah Oil, Gas and Energy Conference and Exhibition (SOGCE), Izwan said Malaysia has the technical talent to compete internationally but lacks structured platforms that allow SMEs to showcase their expertise.

He proposed that future technical exhibitions incorporate AI hackathons where operators and production sharing contractors (PSCs) provide real industry datasets for participants to develop artificial intelligence solutions.

“Technical exhibitions can organise AI hackathons by inviting operators and PSC contractors to provide real data and open the competition to SMEs, contractors and academic institutions, not only from Malaysia but globally,” he said.

According to Izwan, such competitions would provide fair benchmarking among industry players while giving SMEs an opportunity to prove their capabilities to potential clients.

He cited an international AI competition organised by Dragon Oil during the Gas and Oil Technology Conference last year, where participants were tasked with predicting oil, gas, water production and pressure using a subset of offshore operational data.

Izwan said a Malaysian university, Asia Pacific University (APU), won the competition after achieving an 88 per cent prediction accuracy, outperforming several multinational companies that recorded between 45 and 55 per cent accuracy.

“The learning point is that, from a Malaysian perspective, we are actually quite capable. Starting from the SME perspective, we can exhibit and demonstrate our capabilities,” he said.

He added that greater collaboration between operators, professional bodies and industry organisations is needed to create more opportunities for SMEs to access real industrial data and validate their AI solutions before commercial deployment.

Izwan also noted that participation by Malaysian companies and academic institutions in international AI competitions has grown steadily, reflecting increasing interest in applying artificial intelligence within the energy sector.

Source: https://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/284163/smes-lack-structured-platforms-to-showcase-capabilities/