Sonera SmartTrust managing director for Asia Pacific Mark Richards told CNETAsia in an interview that the Finnish-based company sees the city as a good opportunity for SmartTrust to keep costs low, particularly at a time when the global economy has not yet recovered.
"Even though Singapore and Hong Kong are both good locations, we feel that as we grow, KL offers better value in terms of placing our support staff here," he said.
"Besides that, we understand what the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) can do for us and the various benefits the government provides," Richards said.
The company recently acquired MSC-status in September--which SmartTrust regards as a "unique multimedia platform."
SmartTrust will provide support services out of KL to about 19 customers in Malaysia and Asia Pacific. Services include maintenance and technical support, customizing solutions and training, as well as sales and marketing.
"KL represents to us an ideal place to attract good software talent, meet expansion requirements, and it's also a nice place to live in," he added.
Asked if the Malaysian governmnent threw in any other incentives to draw SmartTrust to set up shop here, Richards said there were none he was aware of.
The company develops infrastructure solutions designed to enable secure mobile-commerce services as well as provide security features in smart cards, which Richards described as a "booming" market in Asia Pacific.
Its over-the-air (OTA) SIM card management services allow network operators to change data on SIM cards wirelessly, allowing them to save on costs.
Richards said that in Malaysia, Maxis Communications and DiGi.Com are two telcos who are SmartTrust customers in this space.
"There are another 17 or 18 telcos in Asia using our OTA management services," he said, adding that the company is confident of growing as much as three times more this year compared to last year.
Some of them are SingTel, Mobile One (Singapore), Virgin Mobile (Australia) and Escotel (India).
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