Huawei pushes 5G in SEAsia, brushing off 'tech war' with US

Yahoo – AFP, November 3, 2019

Huawei has emerged as a key protagonist in the wider US-China trade war that
has seen tit-for-tat tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth
of goods (AFP Photo/STEFAN WERMUTH)

Chinese phone giant Huawei said Sunday it was ready to roll out 5G infrastructure across Southeast Asia, dismissing US warnings its tech could be used to hoover up data for Beijing.

The firm has emerged as a key protagonist in the wider US-China trade war that has seen tit-for-tat tariffs imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods.

President Donald Trump's administration has warned Huawei's equipment could allow China to spy on other countries and has effectively blocked American companies from selling US technology to the firm.

But the company has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying it is the victim of tech envy.

Thailand and the Philippines have shrugged off the cybersecurity warnings in a rush to exploit the ultra-fast 5G network promised by the China's biggest smartphone maker, while Vietnam has edged away from Huawei.

"China and the US now is in the trade war and also there is some kind of technology war (which) Huawei is very focused on at the moment," said Huawei vice-president Edward Zhou at the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) summit on Sunday.

"We are here to support the ASEAN (in) the development for the 5G."

Encompassing hundreds of millions of people, the 10-member bloc wants the next-level technology to help businesses, infrastructure and transport compete globally.

Host country Thailand has welcomed Huawei with open arms, allowing it to set up a test bed at a major university near the Thai capital.

A Huawei spokesperson previously told AFP it had invested $5 billion in the trials and has been invited to conduct similar tests in other Southeast Asian markets.

Elsewhere the Philippines' Globe Telecom said this summer it was launching Southeast Asia's first 5G broadband service using Huawei technology.

Both Thailand and the Philippines are historic US allies and some see the tangle over 5G as a challenge of influence between the two powers.

But not all countries have been eager to sign up.

Vietnam has quietly sided with the US on the issue, shunning the Chinese firm in favour of alternative providers for 5G technology, including Ericsson and Nokia.

The country's military-owned telecoms giant Viettel hopes to be the first to roll out 5G in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and has said it plans to to do so without Huawei, citing security concerns.

Zhou reiterated past statements by the company brushing aside the US claims.

"There is not any cybersecurity issues for us. There is no evidence for the US to say that," he said.

Tech Sector Sizzles as Myanmar Embraces Internet for the Masses

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 28, 2014

Big brand names like Facebook, Google, Viber and Instagram have rapidly
 expanded their presence in Myanmar, lured by the growing market.(Bloomberg Photo)

Yangon. From navigating gridlocked city roads to playing a favorite national sport, new homegrown apps are blossoming in Myanmar as cheap mobile technology ignites an Internet revolution in the once-isolated nation.

Myanmar web surfers were once paradigms of patience and ingenuity as they dodged and weaved through the former military regime’s communications blocks in decrepit backstreet Internet cafes.

But commuters in Myanmar’s biggest cities can now be seen tapping away on smartphones as an online awakening sweeps the country, fueled by the loosening of junta-era restrictions and foreign telecoms firms unleashing a flood of affordable SIM cards.

Big brand names like Facebook, Google, Viber and Instagram have rapidly expanded their presence in the country, lured by the growing market. Web-savvy local entrepreneurs are also seizing the chance to create Internet ventures in Myanmar style.

“There are so many things I want to do — I think about it not as business but as a way to find solutions to problems I face,” said Ei Maung as he demonstrated his prototype traffic app in a car inching through the congested streets of the commercial hub Yangon.

“Yangon commuting is worse than bad. It’s terrible. You waste countless hours queuing in traffic every day,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

His Cyantra: Crazy Yangon Traffic app went live in June and allows smartphone users to share traffic problems and view potential snarl-ups on their driving routes.

Internet boom

Internet access has already increased exponentially since the country began to throw off the shackles of military rule.

Just one percent of the population was thought to be online three years ago, as the democratic transition began, but the loosening of web controls and greater access to affordable phone cards has opened the Internet up to millions.

On Saturday Norway’s Telenor launched SIM cards costing just 1,500 kyat ($1.5) in Mandalay — a far cry from the $3,000 a card could cost under military rule — ahead of a wider roll-out in Yangon and Naypyidaw.

The move comes after Qatari firm Ooredoo began selling its SIM cards at the same price last month, throwing open the mobile Internet floodgates.

An estimated 25 percent of people are already online and the Myanmar Computer Federation expects around half of the population, over 25 million people, to be surfing the net in the next three years.

David Madden, whose Yangon-based Code for Change group seeks to promote and support budding techies, said that unlike in the West where web design began with a focus on computers and laptops, Myanmar Internet consumers will be primarily using cheap smartphones.

“People are going to be able to afford one thing and they are going to want it to do a lot,” he said. “It’s the thing you want in your pocket, it’s the thing you want when you are sitting in a bus stuck in traffic.”

Local twists

Social media giant Facebook has dominated the Myanmar web to such an extent that it is the first — sometimes only — port of call for web users.

But Google’s Myanmar-language search engine has struggled to attract users because it uses a standardized font — unicode — whereas many Myanmar websites are written in a locally-produced zawgyi font, meaning they are unreadable on the international search engine.

A local firm Bindez, led by former Google employee Rahul Batra, is taking on the web Goliath as it tries to create a zawgyi-compatible search engine.

The booming tech scene has also given the country a chance to showcase local passions, from checking personalized horoscopes, to a game that allows armchair sportsmen to play virtual “Chinlone” ± a beloved traditional cane ball game — with a quirky owl avatar.

And while connections often remain glacially slow, online entrepreneurs are now grappling with the dilemma that has tormented web-based firms the world over — how to turn clicks into cash.

Mobile money — using the credit bought to top-up mobile phones to make payments for other goods and services — helped by the flood of affordable SIMs now entering circulation, could help.

It is seen as a vital potential tool for the vast swathes of Myanmar’s largely unbanked and rural population to access anything from loans to retail payments.

One popular Myanmar comic, Putet, has already begun using this style of payment system — 495 kyats a month (50 US cents) is skimmed from users’ mobile phone charges, giving them unlimited access to hundreds of colorful cartoon strips.

“It is important to make money — we have to buy cartoons, pay our staff. Advertisements do not make enough money,” editor Aung Chit Khin told AFP.

Readership of Putet’s paper version had plummeted from 10,000 to just 4,000 in the eight years before the app was launched, as it vied for attention with foreign comics, television and games.

While the comic still is not turning a profit, there are now 8,000 app users, attracting more buyers of the paper edition, which has seen its circulation swell to 6,000.

“The app has saved it in a way,” he said.

Agence France-Presse

E-commerce to reinvent Asian cross-border trade

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-09-21

Two students discuss the design of their online store on Taobao. (File photo/Xinhua)

Every day, peddlers throng in a bustling wet market on a remote section of the China-Vietnam border. Their daily lives may soon be changed by a new age of cross-border trade centered on e-commerce.

Before the four-day China-ASEAN Expo closed in south China's Nanning on Friday, a slew of deals on e-commerce were inked between companies from China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

They include agreements over online sales programs for agricultural products from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. These schemes will provide more convenient cross-border transaction for both local sellers and Chinese consumers.

IRRESISTIBLE TREND

China and its neighbors to the southwest have a long history of cross-border trade. In ancient times, border residents bartered goods without using a medium of exchange like money.

When money was invented, cross-border trade became more frequent. But the biggest challenge offline transactions encounter lies in trade settlement.

At the Puzhai Border Zone in Guangxi's Pingxiang, three Vietnamese women place a table besides an ATM to provide currency exchange services for merchants and tourists.

In several minutes, they close a deal with two tourists from northeast China, who exchange 3,000 yuan (US$488) for 9.9 million Vietnamese dong (VND).

"Over 100 Vietnamese fruit vendors do business in the zone, and nearly all of them have directly exchanged currencies via this private currency trading emerging since the early 1990s," said Vietnamese fruit peddler Do Thi Ngan.

She said that doing business with Chinese is a good choice, but trading the Chinese currency Renminbi, or yuan, for the VND is not easy. Since exchanges have until recently had to be conducted via the US dollar in local banks, the procedure was very complicated and extra fees were involved.

Good news is an Agricultural Bank of China branch in Dongxing established a currency trading center in April, which allows direct convertibility of the yuan and the VND.

But the border merchants may need more than that. They need a safer and more convenient way to do business. E-commerce may lead them to the dream.

China has been accelerating e-commerce cooperation with the ASEAN by encouraging cross-border transaction settlement in yuan and establishing online payment platforms.

Yao Songtao, deputy head of the financial office in the Guangxi government, said local authorities plan to start approving renminbi settlement accounts set by foreign institutions in the region.

Gao Hongbing, senior vice president of Alibaba Group, the largest e-commerce player in China, said the company has already prepared payment platforms for cross-border transactions.

The United Overseas Bank (China) has also developed a suite of cross-border renminbi solutions, said Eric Lian Voon Fui, the bank's president.

The combination of renminbi cross-border settlement and e-commerce will shorten the distance between China and other countries, prompting fast transactions and saving costs, Yao said.

E-COMMERCE IN THE AIR

E-commerce has gained great popularity in China among enterprises and individuals. Young Chinese are increasingly inclined to shop by clicking their computer mice rather than by selecting in shops.

The combined transaction volume of e-commerce in the Chinese mainland jumped 29.8% from a year ago to 5.9 trillion yuan in the first half of 2014, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed.

Hutama Sugadhi, president of Indonesia-based Pt Aneka Coffee Industry, came to the China-ASEAN Expo to seek an e-commerce partner to explore the Chinese market. "The market will be broader and e-commerce will inject new vitality," he said.

Like Sugadhi, Chinese e-commerce enterprises are likewise eager to take a share of the emerging ASEAN market after great success domestically. The ASEAN shows huge potential, with around 200 million Internet users in the region, a third of its total population.

Alibaba has turned its attention to ASEAN e-commerce by investing US$249 million in the Singapore Post in May to jointly establish a platform for international e-commerce logistics.

Lee Chee Leong, Malaysia deputy minister of international trade and industry, said there is a clear emerging trend for China-ASEAN trade evolving into electronic cooperation.

China is aiming to elevate bilateral trade with the ASEAN to US$500 billion by 2015.

Related Articles:

China's major retailers lose shoppers
Newly listed Alibaba to apply to run internet bank

What makes Internet giant Alibaba so successful?

Google partners with Chinese telecoms on Pacific cable

Want ChinaTimes, Staff Reporter 2014-08-13

A Google conference held in Beijing in May this year. (Photo/CFP)

Google is partnering with telecom operators and communications companies from five countries, including China Mobile and China Telecom, to lay a US$300 million undersea cable network across the Pacific Ocean. The network will be extended to other Asian countries in the future.

The international units of the two Chinese companies as well as France's Global Transit, Japan's KDDI Corp and Singapore Telecommunication will work with Google on the network, named FASTER. The network will connect major cities along the US west coast including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland to the Japanese coastal cities of Chikura and Shima.

The cable will be able to relay information at 60 terabits per second, 10 million times faster than modems, when the network begins providing services in the second quarter of 2016.

This is Google's third undersea cable network after the Unity cable network that the internet giant built in 2008 connecting Japan and the United States. Google has also invested in another cable network connecting Japan to countries in Southeast Asia including the Philippines and Thailand.

HTC launches smartphones in Myanmar

Want China Times, CNA 2013-01-16

The first new exclusive HTC concept store opens in Myanmar. (Photo/HTC)

Taiwanese handset maker HTC started selling customized smartphones in Myanmar on Monday through a local partner, hoping to establish a presence in the untapped mobile market.

HTC signed a distribution contract with KMD Computer Group, Myanmar's largest IT and mobile distributor, to sell six of its smartphones — the Butterfly, One X+, One X, Desire X, Desire and Desire C — in the Southeast Asian country.

In addition to opening new exclusive HTC concept stores in big cities such as Yangon and Mandalay, KMD also will also set up service centers to serve HTC customers and sell HTC accessories exclusively in the growing market, HTC said in a statement.

HTC worked with Sanmyanmar, a software developer in Myanmar, to customize Google's Android operating system for the new market.

The customized HTC devices will have a Myanmar-language onscreen keyboard and fonts allowing users to read and type more easily, the statement said.

Myanmar users of mobile phones and computers currently need to install fonts in their own language because no unified international standard for Myanmar language symbols exists, making it difficult to integrate the language into software.

Court appeal of dissident Vietnam bloggers is rejected

BBC News, 28 December 2012

Related Stories

• Vietnam jails dissident bloggers
• Vietnam's leader targets blogs
• 'Suicide' of Vietnam blog mother

Nguyen Van Hai (centre) is a
vociferous critic of the government

An appeals court in Vietnam has upheld the sentences of two prominent bloggers jailed in September for "anti-state propaganda", a lawyer has told the BBC.

The court ruled that the sentences and convictions of writer Nguyen Van Hai and former policewoman Ta Phong Tan should not be overturned.

Nguyen Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan received 12 and 10 years in jail respectively after a brief trial.

In a separate development, another top blogger has been arrested.

Le Quoc Quan, one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, was arrested on Thursday on charges of tax evasion, state media reports say.

Mr Quan was detained as he took his children to school in Hanoi.

He has been jailed before, and had recently complained of being under surveillance and harassment.

Vietnam's communist rulers have opened up the economy, but suppress political opposition and ban private media. All newspapers and television channels are state-run.

Fearful

The case of Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Dieu Cay, has attracted international attention and was recently highlighted by US President Barack Obama.

Nguyen Van Hai's lawyer Ha Huy Son told the BBC Vietnamese service that the appeal failed because the court's judgement did not fully reflect the arguments presented on his client's behalf at the hearing.

Ta Phong Tan has been praised by campaigning groups for her work in exposing official corruption.

In June her mother committed suicide by setting herself on fire in front of government offices in protest over her continuing detention.

Le Quoc Quan writes a popular
blog exposing human rights abuses

The pair were found guilty of posting political articles on a banned website called Free Journalists' Club, as well as posting articles critical of the government on their own blogs.

A third blogger, who pleaded guilty, had his sentence reduced from four years to three.

Meanwhile the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that Le Quoc Quan was being held for tax evasion.

He was treated in hospital in August after being beaten up by men he believed were state agents.

The dissident was so fearful of being assaulted again since the August incident that he had reportedly begun carrying a golf club for self-defence.

Le Quoc Quan was detained in 2007 for three months on his return from an American government-funded fellowship in Washington.

He writes a popular blog exposing human rights abuses and other issues not covered by the state media.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency in September, he said that he and his family and staff had received frequent warnings from the authorities.

But he pledged to carry on speaking out against the government and in support of multi-party democracy and freedom of speech.

Related Articles:

Vietnam Bans Blogger From US Rights Award Trip

Vietnam jails dissident bloggers

Vietnam Jails Three Bloggers for 'Anti-State Propaganda'

Vietnamese bloggers go on trial for spreading anti-government propaganda

Vietnam orders crackdown on bloggers

Facebook unwelcome in Vietnam, but Zuckerberg OK

Associated Press, Dec 27, 2011 

In this Dec. 26, 2011 photo, Facebook website founder Mark Zuckerberg

rides  a water buffalo in northern resort town of Sapa in Lao Cai province, 

Vietnam  in this picture taken. Vietnam may block its citizens from using to 

Facebook, but that didn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from spending

 his vacation there. Zuckerberg spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist 

destination Ha Long Bay, local official Trinh Dang Thanh says.

(AP Photo/VnExpress, Le Thanh Hieu)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam may block its citizens from using Facebook, but that didn't stop website founder Mark Zuckerberg from vacationing in the communist country.

Zuckerberg spent Christmas Eve in the popular tourist destination Ha Long Bay, local official Trinh Dang Thanh says.

State-run media say Zuckerberg arrived in Vietnam on Dec. 22.

Zuckerberg spent Christmas Day at an ecolodge in the northern mountain town of Sapa and rode a buffalo, said Le Phuc Thien, deputy manager at Topas Ecolodge.

Zuckerberg, Facebook's 27-year-old CEO, founded the social networking site in 2004.

Vietnam's aggressive Internet censors block access to Facebook and other websites, but young Vietnamese easily bypass the restrictions.

Southeast Asian Bloggers Explore the Boundaries of What’s Acceptable Online

Jakarta Globe, Ismira Lutfia | December 08, 2011

With press freedom under pressure all over Southeast Asia, citizens
are increasingly using the Internet to voice critical views. (EPA Photo) 

      

Related articles

• Asia Bloggers Build Solidarity at Bali Summit
• Taiwan to Fine Bloggers for False Advertising
• Tech Blog TechCrunch in Tussle With Parent AOL
• EU Urges Vietnam to Release Jailed Blogger
• Can Indonesia's Bloggers Keep Their Audience?

With bloggers and social media activists increasingly coming under the same kind of state scrutiny given to traditional journalists, calls are increasing for a new approach to citizen journalism that does not court censorship.

Zheng “William” Wei, a prominent blogger from Singapore, said that with Web censorship not an option, it was up to bloggers to be more judicious about what they posted.

“What’s important now is how to get people to behave more responsibly on the Internet,” he said at a recent gathering in Jakarta of bloggers and social media activists from across Southeast Asia.

Zheng added that governments also had a role to play, arguing that by engaging more with citizens through their online presence, no government should have to resort to censorship.

“If a government is confident about addressing domestic issues through the Internet, it will have better communication with its citizens in cyberspace and no longer have to censor,” he said.

He also said that in order to reduce the incidence of bloggers posting libelous content, there was a growing movement within Web communities for people to use their real identities in their blogs and other social media accounts.

“By having to use one’s real name, Internet users will become more responsible and careful about what they say on the Internet,” Zheng said.

Flow Galindez, a blogger from the Philippines who also spoke at the discussion hosted at @america, the American cultural center, said that responsible blogging habits were key to keeping government censors at bay.

“The concept that needs to be publicized now is for bloggers to ‘think before you click,’ ” he said, This, he added, applies to blog content critical of the government as well as post attacking individuals, groups or companies.

Marcus van Geyzel, a Malaysian-based blogger and lawyer, said that bloggers in the country were not subject to censorship, but were liable to lawsuits.

“The main issue that bloggers have to face in Malaysia is the risk of being sued for slander,” he said.

Van Geyzel attributed the booming blogging community in Malaysia to the relative lack of press freedom for the mainstream media in the country, and across much of Southeast Asia, as indicated in the 2010 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

“What’s being reported in the mainstream media isn’t a lie, but it’s only half the truth,” van Geyzel said. “That’s why people are starting to lose trust in the mainstream media.”

With blogging only starting to take off in the country, he said, the Malaysian government is not censoring blogs, but rather engaging with bloggers.

“They’re choosing to use the Internet instead of blocking it,” he said. He attributed this to a concession by the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak to “appear friendly to bloggers.”

However, he cautioned that over the long term, the Malaysian authorities were unlikely to encourage an unfettered increase in the number of bloggers.

“The government won’t support that idea and will be very careful about accommodating more bloggers, because what the latter might write could hurt the [government’s] credibility,” van Geyzel said.

While other governments in the region have maintained a hands-off approach to free speech on the Internet, the Thai government has come under widespread criticism for its lese- majeste law that allows the prosecution of those posting any content deemed insulting to the country’s revered monarchy.

Arthit Suriyawongkul, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network, told the discussion that the overriding concern among the online community there was that “for expressing oneself on the Internet, one can be jailed.”

He also disagreed with Zheng, the blogger from Singapore, about the need to require bloggers to use their real identities. He said anonymity was still the best protection state persecution.

“Anonymity is still necessary to protect people who have expressed opinions that go against what those in power believe,” he said.

Singapore Tops IT Competitiveness in Asia Pacific, Ranks No. 3 Worldwide

Jakarta Globe, Irene Tham - Straits Times Indonesia, September 27, 2011

Singapore has raced past Australia to become the most competitive IT market in Asia Pacific, a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows.

Worldwide, Singapore has clinched the third place, after traditional heavyweights the United States and Finland.

The fourth report Investment for the future: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2011 scores 66 countries around the world on six key indicators: overall business environment, technology infrastructure, human capital, legal framework, public support for industry development, and research and development landscape.

The bi-annual study was sponsored by non-profit anti-piracy trade group Business Software Alliance. The United States has consistently retained its pole position as the world's most competitive IT market.

EIU ranked Singapore first in the region and third globally due to the nation's strong showing in its R&D environment and the Government's support for industry development.

Globally, Singapore surpassed Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.

In 2009, Singapore ranked ninth globally and second in Asia Pacific in IT competitiveness.

Indonesia Urges ASEAN to Harness Twitter, Facebook

Jakarta Globe, July 19, 2011

Indonesia is one of the top countries based on the number of Twitter
users. (JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

ASEAN must maximize the use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media to engage the region's citizens, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Tuesday.

Speaking to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers on the island of Bali, Yudhoyono expressed support for the establishment of an ASEAN blogger community.

"For the first time, and in contrast to just four decades ago, we are facing a reality where the frequency and depth of contacts between our citizens - through cable television, email, Twitter, Facebook - far exceed the formal contacts between government officials," he said.

"Indonesia, being the world's second largest Facebook nation and third largest for Twitter, knows this very well."

ASEAN must "get into the act" and be "creative and open-minded in harnessing the power of technology to promote people-to-people contact," he said.

"The establishment of an ASEAN blogger community is one innovative idea, and more should follow."

ASEAN, with nearly 600 million people, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The more developed member-states such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have witnessed explosive growth in the use of social networking and microblogging sites even if overall Internet penetration remains low.

Yudhoyono often sends mixed messages about free expression and social media.

The centrist ex-general has warned that the "Internet frenzy" is destroying traditional values, has backed a crackdown on porn websites and has lashed out at people who "use online media to spread lies" about corruption.

Human rights activists criticize Yudhoyono for approving a 2008 law which sets tough penalties for online defamation, saying it has been used to intimidate critics and whistle-blowers.

A Human Rights Watch report released last year cited the example of Prita Mulyasari, a mother-of-two who was jailed for three weeks and spent a year in litigation for writing emails to friends about poor hospital treatment.

A Facebook support group garnered more than 100,000 members, and a court eventually threw out the case against her. But the supreme court recently reinstated her conviction and she is now serving six months of probation.

AFP

Related Articles:

Tweeting Tifatul Denies Calling for the Government to Control Social Media
Tifatul Calls for Social Media Controls to Avoid Arab Spring-Style Uprisings

Women's World Cup Final Breaks Twitter Record

A Big Cake Named Indonesia

Tempo Interactive, Thursday, 23 December, 2010

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Never underestimate Indonesia. It is true that the internet connection in Indonesia is not as good as in Singapore, Malaysia or even Vietnam. But Indonesia is a “sweet cake,” attracting big players.

Yahoo!, in cooperation with TNS (Kantar Media), Nielsen and Synovate, for the second time announced its Net Index Study in South East Asia. Net Index 2010 is used by entrepreneurs to look at business opportunities in every country based on internet users’ growth.

They concluded that Indonesia is the biggest market with the highest growth in South East Asia online market. In 2009, the growth was only 22 percent, meanwhile this year it has reached 48 percent.

As a consequence, internet stalls have lost its customers because people start to access the internet through cell phones. Yahoo! recorded that in 2009, 83 percent of internet users used internet stalls. This year the number has declined to 64 percent.

Meanwhile, according to IDC NMMM, Indonesia has about 25.4 million internet users. In 2009, from that amount, 63.4 percent accessed it through mobile internet. This year it had reached 69.3 percent. Next year, the number is projected to increase 73.2 percent.

FIRMAN