Huawei committed to help develop Sarawak’s ICT infrastructure, manpower

Morshidi (seated third from left) and Oliver Liu (third from right) signing the MoU, witnessed by Abang Johari (standing behind, left) and Li Dafeng (on Abang Johari’s left)

SHENZEN, April 11: Huawei Malaysia, a China-based telecommunications company, is committed to supporting the state’s digital economy agenda by providing knowledge and training to the state.

In a press release dated April 4, Huawei Malaysia said it had signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (Centexs) and the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) under the umbrella of the state government in this effort in the field of digital talent development and technology innovation.

The MoU signing was led by State Secretary Tan Sri Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Centexs chief executive officer Syeed Mohd Hussein and SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak together with Huawei Technologies Malaysia Sdn Bhd vice president Oliver Liu, Huawei Learning Services vice president Xu Chengxin and Huawei Openlab director Lin Xijiang.

The event was witnessed by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and ICT Infrastructure of Managing Board Office director and executive member of the Supervisory Board Li Dafeng.

Addressing those present, Abang Johari said the Sarawak Digital Economy was critical to stimulate the next phase of economic growth, create job opportunities and improve the living quality of Sarawakians.

“It has always been our strategic mission to foster local talents and equip them with not just the necessary but also latest ICT technology skills and certification that is in high demand to achieve a digital future.

“Through the establishment of Centexs Digital Academy, with the current and upcoming digital programmes pioneered by Centexs and Huawei, we are confident that the future ICT digital talent supply pipeline is well guaranteed to support Sarawak in realising the vision of its digital economy as developed and a high-income state by 2030,” he said.

Abang Johari speaking during the MoU signing ceremony.

As part of the strategic partnership to support Sarawak’s digital economy transformation, Huawei would also focus on bringing the latest ICT technology and knowledge required to support initiatives such as smart city, smart rural connectivity, smart campus, smart agriculture, smart building, smart education, smart tourism and safe city.

As stated in the MoU, Huawei would be participating as one of the key anchor partners to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) lab to jointly conduct studies, research and development for localised digital smart solution with local universities and partners for these Initiatives through the adoption of 5G and Narrow Band IoT(NBIoT) technologies.

“As a leader in ICT technology, we are very pleased to be partnering Sarawak state again following the successful outcome of Centexs Huawei Phase 1 digital lab talent programme. We have the experience of working with over 170 countries on high-speed broadband, rural connectivity solution, new submarine links, smart applications platform, cloud data centre, as well as the Internet of Things (“IoT”).

“We are confident that this partnership will continue to contribute to the realisation of Sarawak’s vision in achieving its digital economy transformation agenda,” said Li Dafeng.

In 2017, Huawei Malaysia and the state government signed an MoU to appoint Huawei as the state’s strategic partner in developing its ICT infrastructure for digital transformation.

Last week, the two parties launched the first-ever digital training lab in Southeast Asia here at Centexs to prepare the youths of Sarawak for a digital future. — DayakDaily