With a total of US$380,000 in investment capital sourced from the Nokia company and the Dutch government, the project aims to create an open space for hi-tech entrepreneurs to work and develop mobile applications.

It will also give their careers a boost by helping them seek out potential projects, offering professional services and, technical training, and connecting entrepreneurs with markets, various communities and investors.

All mLab facilities will be funded by major telephone companies including Nokia, Blackberry, and HTC. MLab East Asia will also be linked to mLab networks in Kenya, Armenia and South Africa.

At the ceremony, the organizing board presented awards to the winners of the m2Work Hackathon 2012 contest launched by infoDev, an annual World Bank Global Partnership Program. The competition took place on September 15-16 at SHTP, attracting nearly 500 programmers and developing 15 commercialized applications.