Malaysia-based telecoms group Axiata has announced that it has entered into a five-year strategic global framework agreement with Swedish vendor Ericsson. Under the terms of the deal between the two companies both will work together to establish a streamlined procurement platform which will ‘realise business efficiencies and competitive advantage through cash flow improvement and timely purchasing’. Further, Axiata claimed that the agreement would allow it to leverage its volume across its operations with regards to pricing arrangements, which in turn will lead to cost savings. Commenting on the deal Dato Sir Jamaludin Ibrahim, Axiata CEO, noted: ‘Speed is crucial in the telecommunications industry and this agreement reduces the time required by each of the companies in purchasing products and services thereby translating into faster time to market which will ultimately benefit customers. We look forward to working closely with Ericsson, towards a mutually beneficial agreement.’
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, Axiata, which was demerged from Malaysian fixed line incumbent Telekom Malaysia in April 2008, has strategic mobile and non-mobile telecommunications operations across Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Singapore, Iran, Pakistan and Thailand. At the end of June 2010 the group reported a total of 72.73 million subscribers across all of its regions.