“Although Malaysia is our primary market, we are keen to spread our wings in the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
Dataprep signed a joint venture agreement with Anhui Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge Co Ltd (35%), Beijing Datavideo Co Ltd (25%) and VXL Capital Ltd (40%) to implement the IO-Digitial Wuhu Development project, which is aimed at introducing the concepts of e-commerce and e-government on a progressive basis.
Anhui Wuhu Yangtze, which developed and operates the Wuhu Yangtze Bridge, plans to construct an integrated information service platform as a basic information structure in Wuhu, which is one of the strategic cities identified by the government for rapid development.
With a population of 700,000 and 11,000 small-and-medium-scale industries (SMIs), the city is also known to be a major logistics hub and the largest tea and rice market exchange south of the Yangtze River.
Beijing Datavideo, an IT company recognised by the Beijing municipal government as a high-tech enterprise, will provide technical support for the localisation of the Malaysian applications service provider called Instant Office (IO) in China.
“The utilisation of the Malaysian ASP as a platform in China is a significant milestone in the development as well as success of an MSC status company,” said Dataprep chairman Mirzan Mahathir.
Lim told reporters later that the signing of IO-Wuhu deal was a breakthrough for his company, which will utilise its experience from its initial testpad in Wuhu for further launches in the south, radiating from Wuhu and north of China.
“For our second and third markets, we will be better equipped with more local experience,” Lim said.
According to Lim, the company has launched an IO project on a trial basis in Beijing largely to see the requirements of local customers and the appropriate designs out of Malaysia.
The Chinese translation is important but ultimately, programs in English are vital as the service application will enable them to communicate with people abroad.
The second phase of the IO launch is to educate users, students and businessmen on the “utilisation and usefulness” of the service.
“It is going to be a long road for us,” Lim said.
“We are bound to meet obstacles at every step but expect in the process to build a good relationship with the local people.”
The IO-Wuhu Digital Development project has an initial paid-up capital of 10mil renminbi.
Lim said Wuhu was chosen for his IO project as its people were dynamic, sincere and forward-looking with a thirst for knowledge.
Quelle: the star
