Huawei's 20-Year Journey in Malaysia

Huawei pledges its commitment to continue driving change among Malaysians, one initiative at a time. From helping to bring loved ones together, bridging geographical divides, to empowering businesses to thrive by adopting digital solutions. 

By Michael Yuan, CEO of Huawei Malaysia

Advancing Malaysia's Digital Economy

Malaysia entered the digital era in 1996 with the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor. Since then, the country has recorded many success stories, attracting both domestic and foreign companies working in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to invest and set up operations across various economic zones.

It was also this early initiative that enabled Malaysia to adopt and embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), a key enabler in the transformation and advancement of the manufacturing and services sectors.

Huawei’s foray into the country began in 2001. Since then, the company has deployed 3G and 4G networks throughout the nation, provided training to develop ICT skills across various industries, and worked closely with various stakeholders to advance Malaysia's digital economy.

IR 4.0, along with the rapid advancement of disruptive technologies, including 5G, the cloud, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), have already proven their capabilities to transform the world's economic landscape significantly.

With COVID-19 causing major disruptions and challenges, the need for digitalization has been further amplified in order to provide continuity for Malaysia’s society, businesses, and the government. Calls to bridge the digital divide have also become more urgent, especially to promote remote interactions and business activities, conducted through digital platforms and technologies.

Huawei is fully committed to creating value for the communities and markets in which it operates. The company works closely with partners, including private enterprises and government-owned organisations, to foster a positive, lasting impact while turning to innovation and collaboration to address global challenges.

The Digital Infrastructure Landscape

Malaysia's technology landscape has evolved and progressed impressively, to date.

Huawei is both pleased and honoured to have had opportunities to work with some of the leading telecommunications companies in Malaysia over the past two decades, particularly on connectivity-driven initiatives in recent years.

As the main technology provider in the Malaysian telecommunications market in the 4G era, Huawei has long introduced industry leading technologies to Malaysian operators to support them in building the best experience networks for end users.

In order to explore 5G technology in Malaysia, Huawei has cooperated with communications service provider Maxis, to set up a 5G TechCity project. Under this project, Maxis and Huawei have jointly developed several 5G use cases for Malaysian enterprises and also researched the use of 5G technology, such as Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), in the 4G network.

In other initiatives, Huawei has provided relevant Smart City use cases as reference, such as Sunway City Kuala Lumpur (SCKL), for example. It also helped the Sarawak state government adopt intelligent solutions, nurture and boost its ICT talent, and drive various initiatives to promote economic growth in the state, all through digital transformation. Plus, Huawei worked together with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) to provide a better airport experience for customers and passengers. In summary, the company has played a key role, replicating and transferring skills and knowledge drawn from global examples and successful experiences, all to benefit local industries.

Since 2019, Huawei has cooperated with telecommunications operators, exploring new opportunities for 5G technology and business. We installed the first batch of 5G sites at Langkawi and set up a 5G showcase to introduce the most advantageous 5G use cases to Malaysia. Huawei also worked together with Maxis on the 5G Smart Airport at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). In addition, the company supported Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) as it built a 5G smart campus with the Sunway Group. And we continue to support Malaysian operators explore more, new use cases.

Recently, the first Smart City Operating System (OS) in Malaysia was launched and will be developed in Kuching under the Kuching Smart City Masterplan (KSCMP), launched by Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi (Dr) Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg. The Kuching Smart City ecosystem will help optimize the use of resources and foster collaboration, leading to sustainable, accelerated growth for the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC). The launch saw the exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Huawei Malaysia with SMA, Sains, SDEC, and Centexs, with the aim of helping the state government adopt intelligent solutions as well as nurture and boost local ICT talents.

Huawei Malaysia also had the honor of having its newly refurbished and upgraded Huawei Customer Solution Innovation Center (CSIC) launched by Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Bin Yaakob, in November as part of the celebrations to commemorate the company’s 20th anniversary in the country. In December 2021, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, launched the 5G Cyber Security Test Lab or My5G at CyberSecurity Malaysia. The Minister’s speech was read out by the Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Mohammad Mentek. My5G is a joint-collaboration between Huawei, Celcom, and CyberSecurity Malaysia and is the first-of-its-kind in Southeast Asia. My5G also aims to obtain accreditation from the Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS) and will become a specialist security evaluation and test laboratory for the 5G ecosystem.

Huawei will fully support CyberSecurity Malaysia, helping establish My5Gas a regional cyber security test center.

Cloud Computing: TM ONE Alpha Edge

Starting 2020, Huawei has partnered with Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) to build the only Malaysian owned End to End (E2E) cloud and AI infrastructure, which addresses data sovereignty and will help in efforts to position Malaysia as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) digital hub.

By tapping into Huawei’s cloud technology, which provides a powerful computing platform and an easy-to-use development environment, TM ONE Alpha Edge’s cloud services will enable customers to also enjoy the power of a reliable, secure, agile and future-ready cloud and AI platform as well as services to accelerate their digital transformation journeys.

There is tremendous potential for the growth of cloud services in Malaysia, which has only been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the whole world moving to digital during lockdowns, businesses have had to learn fast that they need access to flexible and scalable Information Technology (IT) infrastructure.

Huawei Spark Program

The Huawei Spark program was first launched in 2020 as a hybrid accelerator program for deep tech start-ups with a presence in Asia Pacific (APAC). The programme aims to drive output in areas such as e-commerce, Financial Technology (FinTech), healthcare, manufacturing, and Smart Cities. The programme is targeted at firms that use Machine Learning (ML), analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, leveraging Huawei’s leadership in technology and innovation.

Recognising its benefits, Spark was introduced for the first time here, in Malaysia, in 2020, and was rolled out in collaboration with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), with TusStar (Malaysia) as an incubator partner, powered by TM ONE — the enterprise and public sector business solutions arm of TM — through its Alpha Edge cloud platform.

Huawei’s Spark Program is powering local companies with financial, go-to-market, mentoring, and networking support as well as marketing exposure, to help them deliver and compete on the global stage.

After the successful run of the first Huawei Spark in Malaysia, the second segment of the competition was launched in December last year.

Helping SMEs

As an industry leader, Huawei Malaysia believes that it is our responsibility to leverage our expertise and knowledge, to help enterprises, especially Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise (SMEs), transform digitally in order to grow and succeed. Huawei's mission is not only to serve its customers, but also to help the countries it operates in to advance digitally across every sector, industry, and layer of society.

Among the company’s various notable efforts is its joint venture with SME Corp Malaysia, aimed at driving digitalization among SMEs by leveraging Huawei’s technology expertise. This is done via the provision of matching grants as well as Huawei’s digital solutions for SMEs. The company also encourages SMEs to create their own innovative products using HUAWEI CLOUD.

Another success story is the collaboration between Huawei and the SME Association of Malaysia to launch an eServices Hub to help other SMEs in Malaysia go digital and build a healthy SME-sell-SME ecosystem. To achieve this, Huawei Malaysia is collaborating with tech SMEs to jointly develop solutions and provide a digital marketplace for tech SMEs to cater to local SMEs for the creation of business and job opportunities.

Investing in Digital Talent Development

In Malaysia, Huawei has partnered with Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) since 2014, running the Seeds for the Future program. This has helped over 116 students from various universities across the country level up their digital skills.

In 2021, Huawei Malaysia, through the Huawei Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Academy, joined hands with the SME Association of Malaysia and the National Tech Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) to train and future-proof over 10,000 SMEs as well as the wider technology community, over a period of just one year. The training programme provided guidance on industry trends and raised ICT awareness, nurturing talents with technical training and certification. It also helped SMEs and the technology community to upskill. This was accomplished by the end of 2021.

In addition, Huawei teamed up with the Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) of Universiti Malaya (UM) in April 2021, to drive the country towards an advanced digital economy by 2030. The collaboration aims to foster closer cooperation between industry and academia. In conjunction with this collaboration, the first jointly hosted Digital Economy Summit is scheduled to be held in the near future, with universities, think tanks, and industry associations converging to share knowledge and exchange ideas.

The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world and Huawei has not forgotten the important role women play. Huawei Malaysia signed a MoU with the Women Leadership Foundation (WLF) to work together in developing a leadership programme for female leaders in the country. A Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Technology Boot Camp will also be held soon in Sarawak.

Huawei Malaysia: A Permanent Feature in Malaysia

For any foreign company in Malaysia, having a foothold in the country for 20 years is an achievement in itself. Huawei Malaysia sees itself as a permanent resident in this country and not just a visitor. As such, we are determined to contribute further towards the development of the country for many years to come.

As we celebrated our 20th anniversary in the country, Huawei Malaysia is proud to look back at its two-decade-long journey in Malaysia, becoming one of the nation’s top technology partners in recent years.

Huawei pledges its commitment to continue driving change among Malaysians, one initiative at a time. From helping to bring loved ones together, bridging geographical divides, to empowering businesses to thrive by adopting digital solutions, Huawei is honoured and proud to have supported Malaysia's digital growth over the past 20 years, touching countless lives along the way.