Abang Jo (centre) witnesses the exchange of MoU documents between representatives of the state and Huawei. File Photo
KUCHING: The Sarawak government will continue its digital economy collaboration with Huawei despite the United States of America’s recent restrictions on the Chinese telecommunications giant.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said Sarawak’s digital economy development, which includes 5G technology, would still go on and their collaboration with Huawaei would not be affected.
“Our side is not affected. We will carry on with the collaboration,” he told reporters after breaking fast with representatives from the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA), Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (Centexs) and Sarawak Centre of Performance Excellence (Scope) at a leading hotel here yesterday evening.
Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on digital economy collaboration with the Sarawak government on April 4, 2019.
Based on previous reports, the partnership aims to explore the collaboration on State Digital Economy Programmes promoting economic growth in Sarawak through digital transformation.
It was also reported that through the MoU, Huawei would help Sarawak develop its information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.
Centexs, which was established by the Sarawak government through Yayasan Sarawak in 2014, is also currently cooperating with Huawei in skills training in digital fields. Students can obtain international certification issued by Huawei upon completion of the course.
Reuters reported on Sunday that Google had moved to stop providing Huawei with access to its proprietary apps and services. At the moment, Huawei phones run on Google’s Android mobile operating system.
Google, however, assured that current users of the Huawei Android devices would still be able to access the Google Play app store.
Huawei, in a statement, also assured that it would continue to provide in-house support for all its Android device users.