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PHOTO: AFP

Malaysia plans to set up 2nd 5G network next year
REUTERS
Malaysia plans to introduce a second 5G network from next year, four sources told Reuters, in the latest policy shake-up aimed at dismantling monopolies and promoting competition by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s six-month-old administration.
Malaysia’s 5G roll-out by state agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) has seen repeated delays since its launch in December 2021 because of industry concerns over pricing and transparency, as well as worries that a single government-run network would result in a nationalised monopoly.
Since taking office in November last year, Anwar has ordered reviews of billions of dollars in government projects as he looks to strengthen governance and minimise wasteful spending.
He has also vowed to boost competition to ensure better services for the public.
Anwar’s government is now planning to introduce a second 5G network from January 2024 to challenge DNB’s lock on the market, four sources familiar with discussions told Reuters, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The communications and digital ministry told Reuters no decision has yet been made on 5G.
“The matter is still under review,” Ahmad Firdaus Mohd, press secretary to the communications minister, said in a text message, without elaborating.
A recommendation by major carriers for a second 5G provider was rejected by the previous government in March last year. DNB deployed its network in late 2021 with the participation of two telecommunications firms on a trial basis.
After months of protracted talks, all but one of the country’s five mobile operators agreed in October to use DNB’s network, opening 5G services to more customers.
The roll-out came under scrutiny again, however, after Anwar took office in November and announced a review of the 5G plan, saying it had not been formulated transparently by the previous administration. DNB denied that claim.
The plan for a second network will be contingent on DNB and mobile operators ensuring that 5G network coverage reaches the government’s target of 80 per cent of the country’s populated areas by the end of this year, the sources said.
A proposal on the plan is expected to be submitted to the cabinet on Wednesday, two of the sources said.
Four Malaysian telco firms - Maxis Bhd, U Mobile, Telekom Malaysia and YTL Communications- did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
DNB and a fifth firm, CelcomDigi, declined to comment. CelcomDigi directed further queries to the government.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Friday he hoped to raise 5G matters in cabinet this week, media reported. Fahmi also said last week 5G network coverage had reached 55 per cent in populated areas.
DNB has said a single network would reduce costs, improve efficiency and accelerate the building of infrastructure.
It was not clear how the proposal for a second 5G network would affect DNB’s existing agreements with its development partner Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson, and other mobile operators.
Three carriers - CelcomDigi, Telekom and YTL - agreed last year to take up a collective 65 per cent stake in the agency, with the government holding the remaining 35 per cent.
Two major mobile operators - Maxis and U Mobile - declined to take up equity in DNB, Reuters reported.
U Mobile later joined other telco firms in signing up to access DNB’s 5G network. Maxis has said it will wait until the government review of DNB is completed.

China’s economy set to rebound

Hopes grow as zero-Covid era fades
AFP, Beijing
China is expected to announce an economic rebound on Tuesday, when Beijing releases its first quarterly GDP figures since abolishing growth-sapping Covid restrictions late last year.
The Asian giant’s virus containment policy -- an unstinting regime of strict quarantines, mass testing and travel curbs -- strongly constrained normal economic activity before it was abruptly ditched in December.
The disclosures on Tuesday will give the first snapshot since 2019 of a Chinese economy unencumbered by public health restrictions, with analysts polled by AFP expecting an average of 3.8 per cent year-on-year growth in the period from January through March.
But the world’s number two economy remains beset by a series of other crises, from a debt-laden property sector to flagging consumer confidence, global inflation and the threat of recession elsewhere.
“The recovery is real, but still in its early stage,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at the investment bank Macquarie.
Any rebound “will be gradual, largely due to the weak confidence” of consumers, which in turn makes companies “reluctant” to hire more staff, he said.
China’s economy grew by just three percent in the whole of last year, one of its weakest performances in decades.
It posted a 4.8 per cent expansion in the first quarter of 2022, though growth pulled back to just 2.9 per cent in the final three months of the year.
A creeping crisis in the property sector -- which together with construction accounts for around a quarter of China’s GDP -- continues to “pose challenges to economic growth”, said Rabobank analyst Teeuwe Mevissen.
Real estate was a key driver of China’s recovery from the initial wave of the pandemic in 2020, when Beijing managed to stop the coronavirus from spreading widely.
But weak demand has since plagued a sector already afflicted by falling home prices and crippling debts that have left some developers struggling to survive.
The situation appears to have eased slightly in recent weeks as official support helped prices stabilise in March, according to figures released on Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Economists will also be watching keenly on Tuesday for March’s retail data, the main indicator of household consumption.
Retail sales finally ticked up in January and February following four successive months of contraction, according to official figures.
But nearly 60 per cent of urban households still prioritise saving money over investing or spending it, up from 45 per cent before the pandemic, according to a survey by China’s central bank.
Consumer confidence “remains well in negative territory” despite the heartening abolition of Beijing’s Covid curbs, said Harry Murphy Cruise, a macroeconomist focusing on the Asia-Pacific region at the ratings agency Moody’s.
“Households have long memories and will take time to forget the economic pain of recent years,” he told AFP.
Beijing has set a comparatively modest growth target of around five percent this year, a goal the country’s Premier Li Qiang has warned could be hard to achieve.
While many experts tend to take China’s official figures with a grain of salt, most expect Beijing to hit that mark.
An AFP analysts’ poll predicted that the Chinese economy would grow by an average of 5.3 percent this year.
That is roughly in line with the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of 5.2 percent.
Still, analysts warned that wider global trends could yet weigh on China’s recovery.
They include geopolitical tensions with the United States, the threat of recession in other major economies and galloping global inflation.