CelcomDigi, China Unicom, Huawei collaborate on 5G-enabled digital business initiatives  

• Aims to aid businesses in digital transformation for efficient, sustainable operations
• MoU strengthens economic ties with China, following US$36B investment commitment in M’sia

CelcomDigi Berhad, China Unicom Operations (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd have formed an alliance to deliver digitalisation needs of Malaysian enterprises with Intelligent Digital 5GtoB solutions.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Idham Nawawi, CEO of CelcomDigi, Li Zehui, general manager of China Unicom and Simon Sun, CEO of Huawei Malaysia, witnessed by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman, Mohamad Salim bin Fateh Din, and CelcomDigi’s chair of the board, Azmil Zahruddin, at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. 

The three-party MoU further enhances existing cooperative arrangements to boost economic ties with China, following China’s commitment in 2023 to invest a record US$36 billion (RM170 billion) in Malaysia over five years.

Through the strategic partnership, CelcomDigi will leverage China Unicom’s existing ecosystem of China-Malaysia-based companies and provide private network connectivity services via the integration of CelcomDigi and Huawei solutions in 5G network access, 5G core network (5GC) and Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC).

Meanwhile,  China Unicom’s role in the collaboration will focus on relationship management between Chinese enterprises and CelcomDigi, as well as to function as system integrators responsible for the integration, operations, services, and maintenance of projects. Ensuring the smooth implementation of customer requirements and scope are key aspects of  China Unicom’s role in the tie-up. Huawei Malaysia will leverage its cutting-edge 5G products and solutions as well as its existing digital platforms to explore project opportunities with CelcomDigi and China Unicom.

Speaking on the partnership, Idham Nawawi said “Our partnership with two leading tech companies for the implementation of 5G solutions across Malaysian enterprises opens new possibilities for businesses to gain faster access to innovative world-class 5G solutions. Our goal is to help more businesses with their digital transformation and unlock the true potential of their businesses with efficient and sustainable operations. We are committed to accelerating the adoption of 5G solutions across industries, enabling businesses to remain competitive and to deliver significant benefits to advance the digital economy.”

“As information and communications technology evolved through the years, many industries have enjoyed the acceleration of digitalisation through 5G, AI and IoT. China Unicom has been actively involved in this core transformation process of this digital industrial revolution and has tremendous practical experience and successful reference cases in China and worldwide. We had the opportunity to establish various successful use cases focusing on a broad span of sectors, namely, the textile, automotive and energy sectors. We strongly believe that together with our partners we will be able to play a pivotal role in bringing industrial development to Malaysia,” Li Zehui said.

“With our global expertise in state-of-the-art 5G solutions deployment, Huawei Malaysia will be bringing to the partnership invaluable insights and experience in delivery experiences and digitalisation for different scenarios,” Simon Sun said. 

He added that Huawei will also assist CelcomDigi with 5G to enterprise application capabilities, as well as make introductions to related ecosystem partners. “We will leverage our experience in digital transformation solutions, which have been creating new value for enterprise customers,” he said.