TM, Malaysia’s leading converged telco and technology company, has today entered into a MoU with ZTE Malaysia Corporation Sdn Bhd (ZTE), a global leader in information and communication technology solutions, to collaborate on a range of research and development innovations under its latest strategic partnership programme.

The partnership will leverage TM and ZTE’s joint expertise to drive innovation and digital transformation for customers and industries, focusing on R&D opportunities and commercialisation, product and technology improvement, and the enhancement of TM’s digital talent ecosystem.

The collaboration will also serve as an important step towards strengthening the nation’s digital and telco infrastructure, and empower Malaysia’s competitive edge in delivering cutting-edge solutions to the marketplace.

Slated to run for a period of three years, the MoU was presided over by YB Fahmi Fadzil, Minister for Communications and Digital; YB Teo Nie Ching, Deputy Minister for Communications and Digital; Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Bin Fateh Din, Chairman; and Dato’ Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus, Chief Operating Officer for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission respectively. The MOU was signed by TM’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Imri Mokhtar and ZTE’s Managing Director, Mr. Steven Ge.

Building on TM and ZTE’s ongoing investments and commitment to R&D and innovation, the partnership aims to deliver new products and services, with TM serving as ZTE’s preferred business partner to deploy innovative solutions, go-to-market strategies, commercialisation, and networking across various markets and customer segments in Malaysia and regionally.

The companies will also work on network and technology planning and overall digital transformation by bringing together Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Anything as a Service (XaaS) providers to develop customised end-to-end solutions for various industry sectors.

Aside from technological developments and aligning with TM’s transformation as a human-centred TechCo, the collaboration will focus on enhancing TM's digital talent ecosystem, covering areas such as talent competency best practices, professional competency framework, technical training and certifications for digital transformation, as well as cross-border knowledge sharing on new technologies.

Dato’ Imri Mokhtar, TM’s Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are pleased to partner with ZTE once more in providing new innovations that will serve today’s digital customers and industries. Spearheading these efforts will be TM’s R&D arm who will provide hardware testing and design enhancement, consultation on digital platform technologies, as well as integration solutions to ensure our offerings are market-ready. This MOU comes on the heels of another recent joint research in next generation access technology to enhance Malaysia’s high speed internet connectivity. Introducing the first ever 50Gbps bandwidth in Malaysia has prepared us to drive other innovative services such as 5G, Cloud VR, and intelligent manufacturing which will benefit communities, businesses and the Government.”

Mr Steven Ge, ZTE’s Managing Director, concluded: “As a global leading provider of information and telco technology solutions, we’re looking forward to collaborating with Malaysia’s leading telco player. We’re confident that our collaboration will bring forth new innovations and solutions to address the growing needs of today’s digital markets. ZTE is also committed to supporting TM's digital transformation and talent ecosystem growth through our global expertise and resources. We believe that this partnership will create a win-win situation for both parties and set a new industry standard for strategic collaborations."