Huawei unveils OpenLab in Malaysia to innovate with local partners

Huawei will construct a new OpenLab in Malaysia, which will serve as an open, flexible and secure platform for joint innovation with local partners.The OpenLab will allow Huawei to collaborate with various industry partners worldwide to create customer-centric and innovation solutions that enable digital transformation, while promoting the development of the industry ecosystem. Huawei has built similar OpenLabs in countries such as Singapore, China, Dubai and Munich, and they support extensive cooperation between Huawei and over 400 solution partners worldwide.The company also signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the SME Corporation Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Terengganu State Government, and CyberSecurity Malaysia. This was in a bid to expand cooperation across a number of domains, including innovation, talent, cyber security, scientific research and smart campuses.According to Huawei's deputy chairman of the board and rotating CEO, Guo Ping, who made the announcement at the recent Huawei Asia Pacific Innovation Day in Kuala Lumpur, technological innovation and an open ecosystem are critical to the success of digital initiatives in the Asia Pacific region. He added that companies need to collaborate more broadly and share views across the ecosystem. "Close collaboration between industry and academia will help ensure a thriving digital economy," Guo said.Guo also said that when countries go digital, they experience a similar evolution of needs and he likened it to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. For Guo, the first layer is ICT infrastructure, the foundation of a digital economy, followed by security for both the physical and digital worlds. The third layer would be developing a supportive environment for industries to go digital, while the highest level is enabling broader information sharing."More data will help cities and national governments better manage the digitisation process, ultimately promoting safer cities and smarter countries," Guo added.