The MoU will see CIMB Bank and CapBridge collaborate to offer the bank’s customers in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia access to private capital and liquidity through the holistic CapBridge private capital ecosystem, Victor Lee Meng Teck, CEO of group commercial banking for CIMB Group, said yesterday.

The CapBridge Investment platform is a private capital-raising platform for companies needing funding for growth and pre-IPO companies. Meanwhile, 1X is a trading platform which facilitates a buyer-seller match for private securities listed on the exchange by using blockchain to register and track the shareholdings of investors who trade on the platform.

The wide-ranging partnership provides a unique value proposition to CIMB’s SME and mid-sized corporates looking to raise capital |and have part of their shares traded, while also remaining private and in full control of the operations.

The Journal cited unnamed sources close to the matter as saying the department would look into Google practices related to web search and other businesses.

Justice department officials share antitrust oversight with the Federal Trade Commission, which conducted a wide-ranging investigation of its own into Alphabet-owned Google that ended in 2013 with no action taken.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A new investigation would come as backlash grows against major tech companies that dominate key segments of the online economy.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has argued that big firms such as Facebook, Google and Apple should be broken up through antitrust enforcement.

Alphabet’s profit in the first three months of this year sagged under the weight of a hefty antitrust fine in the European Union.

Alphabet said profit in the first-quarter fell 29 percent to $6.7 billion on revenue that climbed 17 percent to $36.3 billion.

The earnings took a hit from a European Commission fine that amounted to $1.7 billion at the end of March, according to the quarterly update.

Google’s lucrative advertising platform remained the largest revenue driver for Alphabet, delivering more than $30 billion in revenue, but costs rose sharply as well.

But Google continues to face pressure around the world from regulators, notably in Europe amid multiple investigations over alleged abuse of its dominance in internet search, advertising and its mobile system.

The latest fine imposed by Brussels cited Google’s AdSense advertising service, saying it illegally restricted client websites from displaying messages from ad service rivals.

Google is separately working to satisfy EU regulators investigating its hugely popular Android devices following a $5 billion fine last year.

Google earlier this year said it would offer smartphone users five browsers and search engines as part of the company’s effort to meet EU competition concerns.

Brussels accused Google of using the Android system’s dominance of smartphones and tablets to promote the use of its own Google search engine and Chrome browser and shut out rivals.

In the United States, Google has been a target of President Donald Trump and his allies who have accused the search giant of “bias” and silencing conservative voices, claims denied by the Silicon Valley firm.

The information was released by deputy head of the Government Information Security Commission Nguyen Dang Dao at an international conference themed “Security World 2019” held in Hanoi on Wednesday.

At the conference, participants focused on Vietnam’s cybersecurity and solutions to strengthen data protection in the public and finance-banking sectors.

Major General Dao said that cyber-attacks, espionage and cybercrime had been on the increase resulting in the theft of state secrets and the destruction of information systems.

“There is an increasing number of cyber-crime and reactionary organisations operating in a sophisticated manner, causing serious consequences and threatening social order, safety, political stability and national security,” said Dao.

This situation was set to become even more complicated and the finance-banking sector would continue to be a target for hackers, he added.

Dao also pointed out five risks the country was facing: malware; attacks on e-commerce and finance-banking systems with the aim of extorting, stealing information of organisations and individuals; attacks on infrastructure and IoT equipment; attacks on state agencies and organisations in order to steal state secrets; and distributing harmful and false information online.

Do Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cyber Security and High-tech Crime Prevention, said in recent years, cybercriminals had attacked banks around the world, including ATMs, causing serious consequences.

In Vietnam, he said stealing card information and counterfeiting cards (Skimming) was becoming complicated.

“Vietnam has about 70 million domestic cards. If it is slow to switch from bank cards to chip cards, it could become the focus of card fraud. Skimming is increasing in Vietnam,” Tuan said.

For example, Tuan said in 2018 and early 2019 foreigners had arrived in Vietnam on the pretext of travelling. “They rented houses and installed broadband to conduct fraudulent transactions and make fake bank cards to withdraw money or pay bills/services via point-of-sale (POS) machines, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.”

From the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Public Security had arrested more than 120 foreigners for this crime, he added.

He also said that groups organising online gambling via bank accounts was common, with millions of dollars per day changing hands. At the end of April, police broke up a gambling ring worth more than VND30 trillion (US$1.28 billion), and arrested 29 people.

According to statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, there were 26 organisations providing e-wallet services for about 10,000 units in Vietnam. By the end of last year, there were 4.2 million e-wallets linked to bank accounts. The whole banking system handled VND73 quadrillion in 2018, up 25 per cent compared to 2017, averaging VND300 trillion each day.

A report from the Ministry of Public Security showed that there were thousands of Vietnamese websites attacked by hackers annually. In the first months of this year, over 2,500 websites with Vietnamese domain names were attacked and hundreds of thousands of computers were infected with malware.

Gamers now have more chances to monetise their skills and become more popular in the broader community through becoming e-sport athletes.

Apart the competitions hosted by the corporates both locally and internationally, the upcoming 30th SEA Games will be the first time that e-sport will be allowed in that competition and will feature six e-sport medals.

In the attempt to encourage the e-sport ecosystem to push beyond the game industry and the gamer community, and to encourage gamers to become e-sport athletes, the Thailand Esports Federation (TESF) has joined with the private sector to collaborate in hosting the 30th SEA Games Thailand National Qualifiers, for Tekken7.

Pratthana Leelapanang, the chief consumer business officer for Advanced Info Service (AIS) said the telecom wants to become the network of choice for e-sport players and wants to help drive the e-sport ecosystem.

That ecosystem is now quite small in Thailand, especially when compared to the entire Bt22 billion game industry here. Though it is just beginning, e-sport has the potential for double-digit growth annually, said Pratthana.

A variety of businesses stand to benefit from growth in the ecosystem, including gamers and game publishers, but also for related businesses including media, voice actors, graphic designers, organisers and others.

“We would like to leverage games to e-sport as it deserves support. It is a part of our mission to run a sustainable business through promoting the proper use of networks,” said Pratthana.

It is a part of the Cyber Wellness initiative launched by AIS early this year.

E-sport is another dimension of the digital economy, similar to e-commerce and other sectors that can drive the country’s economy, said Pratthana. The emerging new economy will be driven by digital networks and platforms and affect many industries including media, games, sports, and tech sectors. In the process, it will help create the jobs of the digital economy.

“We treat e-sport as one among the emerging businesses. It is healthily growing by double digits every year and also helps to drive other businesses. We will see the e-sport businesses achieve a significant number and size in the next couple of years,” said Pratthana.

Still e-sports will be one among many new businesses to generate future revenue for the company, and the network will remain its main revenue source.

AIS will co-host the 30th SEA Games Thailand national qualifiers along with Thailand Esports Federation (TESF). The qualifiers will be one component of the Thailand Games Expo by AIS eSports.

This is just the beginning of the e-sport ecosystem in Thailand, said Santi Lothong, the president of Thailand Esports Federation (TESF). There is a good potential for it to in future become a national competition league similar to that of football.

It is a good sign that e-sport is becoming more significant in the family of sports, said Santi.

For this SEA Games, TESF will send e-sport athletes to battle in five games – Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken7, AOV (Arena of Valour) and Mobile Legends Bang Bang.

“We hope our e-sport athletes will compete in the goal medal round,” he said.

There are now around 500 to 800 e-sport players participating in competitions organised by the companies. TESF would like to leverage this into a national league and transform the players into professional athletes. That could come together within the next four years, he said.

Gamers dream big

At the 30th SEA Games Thailand national qualifiers, Nopparut Hempamorn, 22 (nicknamed “Book”), won over Rachawin Tanasoontorngoon, 35 (“Chin”), to become one of the top Thai e-sport athletes. Nopparut has played Tekken since he was 12, much loves the game – and is good at it.

On the first day he played the game, Book could not dream of one day representing Thai e-port athletes. Like so many other children, he loved playing the game simply to entertain himself. He admitted that in the early years of his gamer life, he had played 10 hours a day and becoming a game addict.

His mother warned him to better manage his time to attain a balance between game playing and studying. He obeyed her, and proved to himself and his mom that game playing can be more than just entertaining yourself, but rather can provide a chance to earn money and be recognised as a top player through success in several competitions.

Book in 2013 transformed from recreational gamer to e-sport athlete when he won the Tekken World Tournament in SEA Major in Singapore.

He went on to participate in the final round of the IeSF World Championship in 2017 hosted by International e-Sports Federation, where a Philippines athlete defeated him. This time, he said, it will be a return match for him.

He spends a lot of time studying the playing style of others, acknowledging that the competitor mindset is important to win the competition.

He said that to be an e-sport player requires good time management. Playing the game must be a part of daily life, not the whole of it. The player’s duty to practice must leave room for other duties, especially studying for students or working.

Rachawin Tanasoontorngoon, 31, who was defeated by Nopparut, shared his story.

Game addiction, he said, leads some to play the game all the time and deny the other duties of daily life. He is not an addict, he added.

Chin has played Tekken for 15 years, usually for an hour or two daily. He played when he is free from study assignments as a students, and when he is now free from his work as an accounting employee. He has quite good time management and discipline around playing the game, said Chin.

Like Book, he began playing without ever dreaming of becoming an e-sport athlete. But the development of the e-sport ecosystem helped him to turn his experience and effort in game-playing over 15 years into something more meaningful.

“I attended almost all competitions hosted in Thailand. I joined three international competitions, one in Singapore [Tekken World Tour] and two others in Japan, Evo Japan 2017 and 2018,” said Chin.

To achieve high performance in the fighting game, an understanding of the player character and other characters is required, and that takes practice playing. Hours of practice are vitally important for him.

“I am being ranked number two or three, so I think I should participate in the 30th SEA Games Thailand national aualifiers to represent the country to beat competitors in the SEA Games,” said Chin.

“I have experience with Book, and he is being ranked number one in Tekken7. Personally, I love Tekken 7, and I will keep attending all competitions in the future,” he said.

Panachit Kittipanya-ngam, president of the Thailand Tech Startup Association, said that more startups turned from B2C to B2B organisations to offer business and service technology services. Those vertical tech startups are growing. especially in the education, travel and health business, Panachit said.

In 2018, more corporate venture capital (CVC) funds were established, and there were more seed and series A investments – with funding mainly from CVCs.

One in three startups in Thailand are using deep tech, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), big data, data analysis, biotechnology, and blockchain.

Thai startups have three to four founders on average. The most important factors for the founders are opportunities to commercialise and gain benefit from starting their operations, people’s unmet needs or pain point; and the ability to start a business using their own skills and aptitudes.

Some 82 per cent of founders are males, and their average age upon starting the business is 33. Most of them come from study fields such as business management, engineering and natural science.

The main talent shortages are among technology experts, especially developers, programmers, data scientists, researchers and marketers.

Around half of startups use the government’s support programmes. The top five are startup voucher, innovation coupon and NIV Venture, TED fund, Depa Digital Startup Fund, and 5-year Startup Income Tax Exemption.

Over half of them participate in acceleration programmes hosted by the private and government sectors. They gain networks, mentoring and branding benefits.

Around 80 per cent of startups start with less than Bt5 million. The main current source of funding is personal savings as well as funds from family friends and acquaintances. The top three most-needed financial instruments are prefer-share, crowdfunding, and vesting.

Around 31 per cent of startups earn intentional income. The share of international income is approximately 28 per cent of the total income. Around 19 per cent of startups have overseas operations,

while 91 per cent plan to expand operations abroad.

On average, 64 per cent of startups earn income after six months of operation, while 30 per cent have been making operating profits after one to three years of operations.

Most startups need support in areas of networking, technology knowledge, business training, grants and funding, ease of doing business, and tax reductions and exemptions.

Over half of startups have a long-term goal to sell and cash out of their enterprise, mostly via an IPO. Around 37 per cent aim to expand their enterprise as a long-term business.

These preferences are similar to startups in Singapore. Around 40 per cent of them want to sell and cash out, especially via mergers and acquisitions, while 30 per cent want to expand, and a further 30 per cent do not have a planned exit.

Most startups require one-stop service, investment law and financial instruments, competitive tax incentives and a central knowledge centre. They also need support talent and workforce development especially in creating quality developers and programmers with experience.

While these discussions have proved insightful and, in many cases, improved business knowledge and value – they have overlooked one critical aspect. Our growing dependence on the data around us.

Many of the other aspects of data have been viewed as a choice. A sort of ‘take it or leave it”. That is not the case with dependency. We are all increasingly dependent on data. And as more and more devices become connected to the internet that dependency, and the implications for all of us, will also increase.

First, let’s clarify dependency: Individuals, businesses and governments now rely on storing and accessing data – almost minute by minute, if not more. For the individual, it may be simply email or iCloud photos; for businesses, it’s critical information on public, private and hybrid clouds; and for governments its citizenship and resource data required to ensure smooth, safe running of the country.

The loss of an iCloud account and the associated data could obliterate a lifetime of memories; the inability to retrieve customer information or data on request, could fatally wound any enterprise large or small, and the loss of government data could cause economic turmoil, bringing the country to its knees – with ripples for the global economy.  None of these are insignificant – at any level.

At issue is, as demand and dependency increase, dependency begins to look increasingly unsustainable. Currently only 5 per cent of worldwide data centres have been modernised, meaning 20-year-old legacy architecture is being charged with ensuring our transition into a data dependent world.

Unless we rapidly adopt new technologies designed to reduce the gap between the infrastructure hardware layer and the application software layer, there will be a great number of risks.

Regarding storage, the vast quantity of data available is not a new phenomenon, but quantity has physical limits. We often talk of the cloud as a nebulous, limitless space and have become so used to just “topping up” our storage capacity at will. But limitless it is not. iData is rapidly becoming similar to landfill sites. We add more and more, hour after hour, and we keep everything. Because there is no need to dispose of anything.

As a result, our data centres become even bigger. The world’s largest data centre is The Citadel in Nevada, in the US. It covers a staggering 1.62 square kilometres  – that’s about 250 times the size of the presidential White House.

If the volume of data created continues its current trajectory (quadrupling in size every five  years), how will we manage it?

Then there is access. How and when do we access our data and how quickly do we need it? That varies on the type, location and requirement of the data. As we move to autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI)  and machine learning,  the demands on data will increase as will the requirement to ensure critical applications receive priority. Which brings us to fragmentation.

As more and more devices centralise and decentralise data consumption, and we separate data across multiple locations for efficiency and cost effectiveness,  how will we ensure all our data is safe, secure, available and accessible when and where we need it?

In terms of environmental impact,  I mentioned the Citadel. While it is the greenest data centre in the world, it still comes with an environmental impact. As do the others.  And let’s not forget cost. We have mentioned the environmental impact from our dependency on data. There is also the physical cost.

I began this discussion highlighting the value of data to the individual, businesses or government. But in a world that quadruples the data created every five years,  how do we ensure the value increases.

And finally there is security. More and more data, from more and more devices, stored in more and more locations increase physical and digital risks to the integrity of the data and the entire connected system.

While this may sound overwhelming, it should not be disheartening. New technologies are narrowing the gap between the physical and virtual world. As that gap shrinks even further, our ability to access, manage and benefit also increases.

Operating systems that simplify the operating environments for the enterprises entrusted with storing and maintaining our data are emerging. This of course does nothing to reduce our growing dependency, but it does help mitigate the risks and challenges associated with the deluge of data and our dependency on it.

Thawipong Anotaisinthawee is the country manager for Nutanix (Thailand).

The talk session led by Dr Santitarn Sathirathai, Group Chief Economist of Sea Group, highlighted the objectives to broaden the perspectives for organizations, the people of Thailand, as well as the society as a whole to keep up with the pace of ‘Digital Transformation’ which plays a heavy role in changes of the modern lifestyles and the country’s fast-paced development.

The talk show also included a panel discussion session under the topic of “Shaping the Future: Discovering Essential Skills for Future Workforce” in order to find out and share views on necessary skill sets that the new generation and professionals should possess for work, study and general adaptation amongst changes in the society. Panelists joining the session consisted of gurus and experts from various industries, such as Dr. Sarut Vanichpun, Director of Sea (Thailand), Mr. Rawit Hanutsaha, Chief Executive Officer of Srichand United Dispensary Co.,Ltd, Asst. Prof. Chaiyaporn Puprasert, Vice President of Student & Alumni Affairs, Chulalongkorn University and Mr. Chayut Sakunkoo, Chief Executive Officer of Tact Social Consulting Co., Ltd.

The talk show event welcomed a large number of participants who are professionals of many different sectors including business, technology, start-up and education.

Leveraging competitive edge for organizations, while fostering the societal awareness for ‘Digital Transformation’

‘Digital Transformation’ has been a worldwide phenomenon, especially in the professional world and amongst the new generations. The core of ‘Digital Transformation’ is to bring in the ‘Digital Technology’ as integration to all parts of the business, from cloud computing, big data, internet of things (IoT) and many others. From business processes to setting the goals for the company’s future growth, ‘Digital Transformation’ has become vital for organizations to adapt well and thrive in today’s rapid changes. Thailand has also been in an effort to adapt to respond to the ‘Disruption’ that has occurred, with the government trying to push the ‘Thailand 4.0′ policy to change the macro-economic structure to be ‘Value-Based’ economy or ‘Innovation-Driven’ economy.

At present, the private sector and various companies are trying to bring technology to improve business efficiency and meet the needs of consumers more directly. Information from ‘Dell Technologies’ and ‘Intel’ indicated that 7% of Thai businesses are ‘Digital Leaders’, for which digital transformation is ingrained in the DNA of the business. The index categorized 40% of Thai businesses as ‘Digital Adopters’, which have mature digital plans, investments and innovations in place. Additionally, there are approximately 23% of the companies which are ‘Digital Followers’, with very little digital investment but careful planning of future innovationi. These data showed that Thailand is at the point of entering a fully digitized society.

Dr. Santitarn Sathirathai, Group Chief Economist, Sea (Group) revealed “As a leading internet company, Sea is committed to better the lives of the consumers and small businesses of Southeast Asia and Taiwan with technology through our digital businesses including Garena, Shope and Airpay. We have to adjust to respond to changing consumer behaviors over time, which has led us to become fully aware of the changes in many dimensions that occurred rapidly from technological advancement. Nowadays, everything has been transformed into a digital society and all things are ‘Disrupted’ with the inevitable digital process, causing more or less impacts on people in society in terms of daily living, working and how businesses are processed. Learning to develop oneself and adopting the full transition into the technological era will enable convenience to the lifestyle by fulfilling all needs. Therefore, Sea has hosted the special talk event ‘Sea Insight Future Focus’ which is a presentation of various perspectives and outlook about the changes caused by the coming waves of digital economy, as well as how we deal with disruption and new digital trends. At the same time, we also opened an opportunity for every participant to find out the answers on how to adjust and develop ourselves to be able to understand and brace for these changes, in order to overcome the limits and unlock new potentials within everyone.”

In an age where technology changes and ‘transforms’ all the time, ‘people’ become a major backlash in organizational development. However, information from Microsoft Digital Transformation Study in partnership with IDC Asia/Pacific on Unlocking the Economic Impact of Digital Transformationii found that despite 82% of Thai organizations has adjusted to respond the ‘Digital Transformation’, the real challenge lied within this digital change that business and entrepreneurial sectors will face is the severe lack of human resources and skill gaps in workforce, caused by unpreparedness and ignorance of the use of technology.

Dr. Sarut Vanichpun, Director of Sea (Thailand), added “We may not be able to clearly state that in the next 10 to 20 years, how the educational model which is the basis of life and the society will be transformed. However, the clearest thing which should be started right now is the preparedness for the future changes. Technology has proved to yield constructive benefits, although sometimes we would encounter obstacles in the adjustment process. Therefore, various organizations and educational institutions are urged to turn their focus on creating knowledge and understanding to provide assistance and support for the future labor market. Most importantly, skill trainings should be promoted amongst the Thai workforce. These include the ‘learning skills’ such as analytical thinking and creativity that will help personnel to solve new problems efficiently, the ‘literacy skills’ such as understanding of data, information and technology process that manage the data, and the ‘life skills’ such as experience to improve for the better, to adapt to new situations, leadership and passion in initiating, as well as dedication to create things on their own. We should aim to create flexibility in economic adaptation for the workforce market in order to conform to the new ways of work and the fast-changing society driven by technology and big data.”

“For Sea, we strive to be an organization that engages people with the skills of the future. We serve as a learning resource that helps increase opportunities and develop potential for our people. We also promote learning in the full and sustainable work process. For instance, for work management and flexibility, we let our employees try out their own decisions (Decentralization) under the guidance of the head of the department. We also centralize the decisions (Centralization) from the organization for employees to adhere to. Apart from this, we focus on supporting education and improving the ability of young students, including collaboration with several universities to develop courses in digital entertainment production and business management. We also regularly open opportunities for interns to come and work in our offices in order to gain the real-life experience, as well as giving out scholarships and grants through the company’s CSR initiatives. We hope to be part of the contribution for a sustainable growth of the digital industry and for all sectors of Thailand to move forward together into the full digital economy effectively and seamlessly,” Dr. Sarut concluded.

BEC World aims to become the top provider of content and entertainment, in terms of rating and revenue, by expanding its online operations in the next three to four years, said Ariya Banomyong, the new president and director of BEC World Pcl.

“TV broadcasting, our core business, is just one channel to generate revenue for the company. We are growing our online business and it is time to leverage our strength for sustainable growth,” he said.

To achieve that goal, he said, the company would focus on six areas of activities: TV Plus, integration of TV and online operations, distribution, intellectual property (IP), artists, content, and technology.

For the online channel TV Plus, the key strategy in the short term is to integrate and optimise the company’s online and TV-based businesses. The move would pool viewers under a single platform, which will eventually benefit both brands and audience.

The company will transfer content between the two platforms more effectively. Channel 3 has a big viewer base, the challenge is how to monetise and optimise it online.

Currently, the online platform contributes 5 per cent of the company’s overall revenue, he said, adding that it has the potential to reach 10 per cent this year with the implementation of the new business strategies.

In distribution, it would expand the scope of the company’s content and entertainment business through new types of partners, especially over-the-top (OTT) players.

Ariya sees TV broadcasting as a channel for distributing BEC World’s content and the way forward is to cooperate with OTT partners, both in the local and overseas markets. A plan is being drawn up, but it will not be disclosed to the public at the moment.

For IP and artists, the company will focus on monetising both IP and artists under a new model.

It will further boost revenue contribution from content service, one of its main sources of income, with new programmes. Dramas and news are currently the top draw of the channels.

Regarding the strategy on technology, Ariya said that would take time as it would be closely related to the future direction of BEC World’s business, adding it has the option of working on its own, investing in a developer or forming a partnership for the development.

“We may set up a new platform for the content and entertainment business,” he said.

Ariya, however, would not commit to the size of the platform or the number of staff, saying only that it would be proportionate to the task.

He said the current size of BEC World’s online viewers is ranked close to giant international platforms such as Line, Facebook, and YouTube in Thailand.

“A strategy will be proposed to the board of committees before roll-out. We will commit manpower, time and resources for the right strategy and results,” said Ariya.

He said the future of BEC World’s business will be both online and offline. We will not rely on online platforms. We are not a tech firm, we are a content and entertainment provider.

“The company should see higher contributions from areas of operations other than TV broadcasting, which accounts for 80 to 90 per cent of its total revenue. Income from online business should rise from 5 per cent to 10 per cent this year,” said Ariya.

BEC World has posted losses for four quarters. Ariya said his goal was to turn the company around and set it on a path to sustainable growth, but did not provide a timeline. The move will gather momentum early next year, he said.

“We will seek new business models. We need to go beyond TV but we must tread carefully as broadcasting is still our main source of revenue. The expected rise in contribution from online and new businesses will not be at expense of TV, but will generate extra income.

We do not start from zero, we have huge assets in content and viewers. We will explore new business models and monetise them most effectively,” said Ariya.

Fortunately, he said, Thailand is a market where people favour local content, which is a positive factor for BEC World.

He said he decided to join BEC World as he welcomed the challenge of taking the giant corporate to the top spot in the digital era in the next three to four years.

Bob Zhu, deputy general manager of Huawei Myanmar, told The Nation on Friday the firm would try its best to continue cooperating with Google, while preparing for the implementation of its own operating system as Plan B.

“We will keep  discussing with Google to find a proper solution for  our users to continue using Andriod systems. Once we have reached an agreement, we will continue our cooperation  with them,” he said.

“We do not want to use 100 per cent Huawei’s parts in our products. We always choose to cooperate with other partners so we can grow together. We will try our best to avoid using Huawei’s own parts in our mobile phones.”

Zhu insisted that Huawei preferred to choose Google, even if its own operating system is better than that of the US firm.

“We are trying to develop  our own operating system. But, Google Android is still our priority. If we can reach an agreement with Google, we will continue to install their systems in our products,” he said.

According to Zhu, Huawei users do not have to worry about losing access to Google services and related applications, as all Huawei phones and tablets already sold as well as those still in the market will not be affected by the US ban.

“For all products manufactured before the US ban, end users will get the same functions and services as before. These include Huawei products currently in the stock or in the market,” he said.

“We are still negotiating with Google. Whatever happens, that will only affect  new products and solutions to be produced in the future. Likewise, the current Huawei chipsets will not be affected because we have  been given  full authorisation.”

Zhu guaranteed that  all  products are safe to buy, as they will feature the same services as before. In this respect, Zhu is sure of  Huawei’s capability to maintain its leadership position in the Myanmar market.

“We are fully confident that the US ban will not affect our growth momentum. Like in many other countries, Myanmar people love to use Huawei smartphones, and the trend will go on,” he said.

“Amid the widespread rumours about Huawei, some people may hesitate to buy our products at this point. It is usual, but they will  regain their confidence in our products after our clarification. We believe people who like Huawei will continue to buy our products in the future.”

Plan B in place

With Huawei products and solutions covering nearly all aspects of the ICT era, the firm has long prepared  a Plan B, he said.

“We are well-prepared to drive our sustainable growth, even in time of  challenges. We do have a Plan B in place to offset any action that may affect our services and products. Plan B is designed to overcome a  bad situation.”

According to Zhu, Huawei has the capability to produce its own chips in the event the firm can no longer buy necessary parts from US companies.

“Our business is still growing, and we do not worry about the US ban and its impacts. But, we are still committed to cooperating with our partner companies all over the world,” he said.

Zhu said the news of some Japanese companies having joined the US  ban on Huawei was just a rumour.

“Panasonic and Toshiba have officially announced that they would keep  business cooperation with Huawei. There will be adverse effect from  the US ban,” he said.

“ As the US ban set in, rumours follow. But we just have to shrug them off and keep going.”

At the briefing, Zhu stressed the importance of Huawei’s commitment to cyber security, as more than one third of the world’s population use Huawei products to make phone calls and access to the internet. He said the US government does not have any evidence to prove that Huawei had breached its  cyber security standards.

“From the technology side, we will keep providing high security solutions and products, and we don’t have any major issue so far,” he said.

“We hope the US government considers cyber security as a technical problem, not a political problem.”

He said Huawei is not willing to get involved in the political conflicts between China and the US, with  both vying for the super power status.

“What we care is our business . We don’t want Huawei to be involved in politics,” he said.