Meeting with Senior Officers from Telekom Malaysia Global (US) Inc this morning, Monday 9/11/2015 at the Embassy of Malaysia, Santiago. The Officers from TM were Mr. Hafiz Luckman (Regional Director-Americas), Mr. Jorge Galloso (Regional Manager Latin America), Mr. Kevin Camenares, and Mr. Yuzaimi Yusof (Operations Manager). The said meeting was to inform of Telekom Malaysia Global intention to penetrate into the Chilean market especially in the wholesale and enterprise fields.
Among Inputs gathered from the said meeting were:-
1. Telekom Malaysia - Americas. is expanding its presence/focus into Latin America market especially Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile;
2. WHY CHILE? It is because Chile is the among the most business friendly market in Latin America. And therefore attractive to many foreign-direct investment (FDI) from ASEAN. Among the success stories are Start-Up Chile - Seed Accelerator set up by Chilean Government & it's collaboration with Silicon Valley Tech Companies. In fact, Malaysian government-funded MaGIC Accelerator Program is modeled after Start-Up Chile initiative which attracts foreign talent that will stay for a while to exchange knowledge with the local community;
3. TM - Americas is meeting with local telecommunication providers including Entel Chile, Claro, Movistar, GTT to gain better understanding of local market and explore potential partnerships in providing telecommunication services in Chile;
4. "Going beyond connectivity" - TM Americas is expanding beyond traditional wholesale business and aggressively looking into enterprise and consumer market in the region;
5. TM currently have strong presence in United States with:-
A. Several Submarine Cable Systems that land into West Coast of United States (i.e. Asia-America Gateway Cable System (AAG), Japan-US Cable Network (JUCN), Unity, etc.); and
B. Seven Point-Of-Presents (PoPs) in Los Angeles (2), San Francisco (2), New York, Washington D.C. and Miami. In addition, TM also owns a data center in Downtown Los Angeles. TM's is looking to extend its network infrastructure network into in Latin America within the next few years.
6. TM is working together with Malaysia Embassies including the Embassy of Malaysia in Santiago for its Latin America penetration initiative, reaching out to Malaysian and ASEAN MNCs operating in Latin America.
Datuk Dr. Rameez informed the meeting he sincerely hope that TM will make its presence in Chile and Latin America soon to tap on its various potentials it can offer. That will also assist in increasing trade and investment as well as people to people link between both Malaysia and Chile.