Anwar Call For Transparency Over Ericsson S 5g Contract

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PARLIAMENT | Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has urged the Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa for more transparency behind the Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) award of Ericsson's 5G network contract.
Anwar said previous statements had estimated the cost of the 5G network contract to be as high as RM20 billion.
"The contract needs to be more transparent. Without this transparency, we do not know why it was awarded to Ericsson and not to Huawei or the other companies, as well as what was the cost of the tender.
"The statement from the minister before this one was that it would be RM15 billion, RM18 billion, RM20 billion.
"This is already almost as big as 1MDB. I want to remind the minister if anything goes wrong, it might end up in the court like 1MDB.
"So I hope this matter is given attention so that the cost can be known and traced," Anwar said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this while debating the committee stage of the Communications and Multimedia Ministry's allocations under Budget 2022.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar also questioned the efficacy and effects of a monopoly on the 5G network, with DNB – which is wholly owned by Ministry of Finance (MOF) Inc – as the sole provider of the infrastructure.
He said that telecommunications companies have also voiced their concerns about the high costs to sign up for the 5G network.
"Why not give them space to compete more transparently and freely?" Anwar asked.
It was previously reported that the government had estimated the 5G network contract to cost around RM15 billion.
DNB later chose to award the 5G network contract to Ericsson with a cost of RM11 billion after undergoing an open tender process. - Mkini

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