Malaysia welcomes Chinese tech giant Huawei despite Western concerns
Malaysia has extended a warm welcome to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei – but says it will carry out its own security checks into the controversial corporation.
Speaking after a tour of the company’s global training centre in Malaysia, Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming said he understood that the Communications and Multimedia Ministry would be doing its own due diligence “but from my ministry’s perspective, the fact that Huawei continues to invest here in Malaysia, provide good quality jobs to Malaysians – this is something good for the long-term benefit of Malaysia as a country, and shows a very strong and strategic partnership we have with Huawei from an investment perspective.”
The lawmaker said he was confident that as more Chinese companies expanded operations to the Asean region, they would “see Malaysia as … a good place to recruit, train and also deploy talent”. Huawei’s partnership with major telco Maxis, he added, was a “good sign” of the confidence local players had in its technology. His comments come in the wake of concerns from several Western nations over Huawei’s links to the Chinese government, with the US accusing the company of enabling state espionage.
