TOKYO: Strategic alliances with international telecommunication giants are necessary for the country to acquire and keep up with technology, according to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
If this was not done, Malaysia would be left behind as technology moved at a very fast pace, he said.
“We need partners in the field of telecommunications. When we have a joint venture with a foreign company, it does not mean that we surrender our telecommunications business to them.
“We are working with them, acquiring the technology, but we retain control of our own telecom operations in Malaysia,” he told a press conference today to wrap up his three-day working visit to Japan.
The prime minister was responding to a question on the proposed merger of Norway’s Telenor Group and Axiata Group Bhd of Malaysia.
Telenor, the parent company of Malaysia-listed Digi.Com Bhd, and Axiata recently announced that they were in talks to merge their operations in Southeast Asia and South Asia to create a company with 300 million customers in nine countries.
Telenor is expected to own 56.5% of the merged company based on equity value while Axiata would own 43.5%. — Bernama
