Tan Sri Dr. Lim Wee Chai, founder and executive chairman of Top Glove Corp Bhd, the world's largest rubber glove manufacturer, is an advocate for smart and sustainable cities.

He recently visited the i-City Golden Triangle (i-City GT) ultrapolis in Selangor's capital city, which he described as "a good project and well-developed."

The 63-year-old physics graduate from Universiti Malaya and Tunku Abdul Rahman College alumnus who founded Top Glove in 1991 was at i-City GT to see the development and smart city features firsthand.

Lim also had a friendly meeting with Tan Sri Lim Kim Hong, the founder and group executive chairman of I-Berhad, the RM10 billion i-City GT developer.

He saw the i-City GT scale model and then toured Sumurwang Tower, a Grade A office tower with MSC status that incorporates AI (Artificial Intelligence) and smart features, as well as the one million square ft Central i-City mall and the DoubleTree by Hilton i-City Hotel, which opens next year.

Lim (Wee Chai) told NST Property that the most appealing aspect of i-City GT was its comprehensiveness and integration.

He also called Sumurwang Tower, which will be renamed Mercu Maybank, a "smart and intelligent building."

The 33-story Sumurwang Tower is part of the financial district of i-City GT, which also includes the Central i-City mall, the DoubleTree by Hilton i-City Hotel, the i-City Convention Centre, and the BeCentral residences.

The financial district will be linked to the i-City LRT Station, which is set to open in 2023.

Maybank, Malaysia's largest bank in terms of assets, is relocating some of its operations at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to Sumurwang Tower.

Lim, a Tzu Chi Foundation commissioner and volunteer, said that i-City GT will benefit from the presence of major corporations such as Maybank, Prudential, and Flextronics at Sumurwang Tower.

He went on to say that the addition of these big names will help the overall i-City GT development.

As a permanent alternate office location, Maybank will lease 14 floors in the tower for a total of 162,000 square feet.

Around 1,400 Maybank employees will have relocated to the tower by the first half of 2022.

According to a Maybank spokesperson, the decision to secure office space in Sumurwang Tower is solely for business continuity management (BCM) and resiliency planning in order to ensure that Maybank's operations and service delivery are not disrupted.

The spokesperson said that this tower will serve as a permanent alternate office site for the group in order to accommodate new work arrangements as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, such as hybrid and remote work considerations for the group's various functions and businesses.

Menara Maybank, located on Jalan Tun Perak in Kuala Lumpur, will remain the group's headquarters.

Sumurwang Tower is suitable as a permanent alternative office, according to Maybank, because of its premium corporate office design, security features, and Green Building Index (GBI) certification, which aligns with the group's sustainability commitments.