Enabling rapid growth of society and improving quality of life with Lumada

Dear Colleagues,

September was an exciting month for us in ASEAN!

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Hanoi which I gave my input on how Hitachi is helping to build smart cities in Asia, specifically along the Mekong River region.

As we move closer towards the most crucial phase of the 2018 Mid-term Management plan, let us collaborate more conscientiously. As you would know, we already laid a strong foundation towards this endeavour by launching Hitachi’s first Lumada Center Southeast Asia on 17 September, an exciting moment for us in ASEAN. The Lumada Center is strategically located in Chonburi, Thailand along the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), that effectively encapsulates and integrates Internet of Things (IoT) solutions from countries around the world, including Japan, China and the United States of America. We were very honoured to have the Secretary General of EEC, Dr. Kanit Sangsubhan and our President and CEO, Mr. Toshiaki Higashihara to grace the grand opening ceremony. With the establishment of the Lumada Center, we aim for 300 billion yen business revenue in Thailand and 700 billion yen in ASEAN by 2021. Let’s TEAM up and channel all our strengths towards achieving this goal TOGETHER!

The launch of the Lumada Center was carefully planned, just before the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2018 BANGKOK the next day. The key moment of the event was the signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SCG Cement-Building Materials Co., Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi Asia Ltd. With this MoU, the three companies will embark on “collaborative creation” to promote optimization in factories and develop digital solutions utilizing Lumada. All such initiatives will support the Hitachi Group in taking the lead to accelerate development in the digital and IoT arena globally.

Hitachi’s core ethos of contributing to the world through the development of advanced products and solutions is a testimony that is well reflected and synergized with how the Thailand government is taking steps towards building a smarter and more sustainable society across ASEAN.

Our journey towards our achievement is continuous and the recently held Hitachi Vantara’s annual event, NEXT 2018 is an outstanding example. I was in San Diego, United States to attend NEXT 2018 which emphasized heavily on “collaborative creation”. So let’s focus on creating an ecosystem of partners, customers, suppliers, and technology companies to address "challenges".

At Hitachi, we firmly believe in establishing a collaborative network with leaders of tomorrow to foster the power of innovative thinking and technology enabling social progression. This belief will go a long way in inspiring us to champion the larger mission of enabling rapid growth and the development of society and improving quality of life.

The Future is Open to Suggestions!

Kojin Nakakita
Chairman
Hitachi Asia Ltd.