Sarawak state government to work with Huawei to draw digital economy blueprint

Malaysia, Sarawak, 4th April: Huawei signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on digital economy cooperation with the Sarawak state government today. The partnership aims to explore the collaboration on State Digital Economy Programs promoting economic growth in Sarawak through digital transformation. 

The signing by State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani, representing the State Government, with Foo Fang Yong, Vice President of Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) was witnessed by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg and Edward Zhou, Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications, Huawei Technologies at the Sarawak International ICT Infrastructure and Digital Economy Conference. 

The signing by State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi bin Abdul Ghani(Third left), representing the State Government, with Foo Fang Yong(Fifth right), Vice President of Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) was witnessed by Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg(Fifth left) and Edward Zhou(Fourth right), Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications, Huawei Technologies.

Speaking on the partnership, Abang Zohari said, “The development of digital economy is the main driving force of future economic development in Sarawak. As high-speed broadband is the foundation of a digital economy, it is the focus of the Sarawak state government to provide our people with a ubiquitous high-speed broadband connection. This is to improve the level of economic development and the lives of our people. We hope to leverage on Huawei's global leading ICT technology to jointly collaborate on areas among other, smart city planning and Safe City solution to strengthen public safety, traffic management control, community social network and other key initiatives such as smart tourist, smart building, smart home, smart education, e-commerce, and others to promote local economic development.”

Huawei brings an experience of working with over 170 countries on high-speed broadband, wider wireless coverage, new submarine links, smart applications platform and data centre, and Internet of Things (“IoT”) to the partnership in turn helping Sarawak state achieve digital economy transformation.

“Through the development of e-government cloud and safe city, we intend to improve government efficiency and provide better public service to the people of Sarawak” said Morshidi.

"Over the past 16 years, we are proud that Huawei has made outstanding contributions to the development of the ICT industry in Malaysia," said Abraham Liu, CEO of Huawei Malaysia. "Looking ahead, the ICT industry will grow exponentially and bring tremendous changes to all industries. It is our great honour to be selected by the Sarawak Government to provide the latest ICT technologies and contribute to the Sarawak digital economy blueprint to help its people prepare for the advent of the IoT era.”

Liu added, “We are looking forward to working with the Sarawak to help them achieve digital transformation. The signing of this MoU is an important step towards our commitment as we are honored to continue to fulfill Huawei's mission to build a better connected Malaysia.”

The Sarawak International ICT Infrastructure and Digital Economy Conference.

It is a commitment from Huawei to Malaysia’s digital transformation into a Smart Digital Nation. Huawei’s regional hub and its 11 sharing centers are located in Malaysia. The company serves all major telecom operators becoming a key contributor to High Speed Broadband (HSBB), 4G and other ICT developments in the country. Huawei has contributed significantly to the ICT and skill development initiatives over the last few years, for instance through its global training center in Cyberjaya Huawei trains 100,000 engineer/day since 2012. In collaboration with MDeC, Huawei has facilitated ICT training for over 10,000 teachers and students and has built training labs in 15 top Malaysian universities. For the past three years, Huawei has sponsored 51 Malaysian university students for a two week study trip to China as part of its ‘Seeds for the Future’ initiative. To date, Huawei has 2,500 staff in Malaysia where 70 percent of them are recruited locally. In 2016, Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak officiated the opening  of Huawei’s second customer solutions innovation and integration experience center (CSIC) in the country.

Through this partnership, the company’s role in the local ICT industry as an investor, employer, and partner, continues to grow.