Maxis Berhad | Annual Report 2012

Maxis Berhad // Annual Report 2012 16 CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Everything we do is aligned with our aim to give our customers the best possible communications experience. This is more crucial than ever as market competition intensifies and more players move into high-speed broadband. During the year we sharpened our focus on customer service excellence through standardisation, process and system improvements, and enhancing our multichannel service capabilities to make it easy and convenient for our customers to reach us. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY We believe a strong sustainable performance leads to a strong financial future. Based on this, we have designed a Corporate Responsibility (“CR”) framework to help drive our sustainability objectives across the organisation and manage our “triple bottom line” of economic, environmental and social impacts in ways that add value to the Company and all our stakeholders. We have invested significantly to improve connectivity for underserved communities. In 2012, we extended coverage and lowered broadband costs in Sabah and Sarawak. We partnered with SKMM to provide WiFi access to 110 rural sites in Peninsular Malaysia and we operate 16 Community Broadband Centres (“CBC”) nationwide to provide basic IT training to less privileged communities. Our flagship community programme, Maxis Cyberkids, reached its first decade in 2012. This has been a highly successful initiative to familiarise teachers and students with IT skills and enable them to be catalysts for change in their own communities, with over 8,600 students and teachers from 1,500 schools nationwide having gone through the programme. Last year we included special education schools, for the hearing-impaired, for the first time. THE BOARD’S COMMITMENT The Maxis Board is fully committed to positioning Maxis for profitable and sustainable growth while maintaining the highest standards of ethics, corporate governance and corporate responsibility. You will find this discussed in greater detail on pages 78 to 82, 195 to 211 and 219 to 221 in this annual report. Global trends and growing consumer concerns about the social and environmental impact of corporations are reshaping the business environment. In this environment, it is critical that the Board integrates sustainability considerations into our guidance and oversight of the Company’s business strategy, ensuring the long-term interests of the business and the community and environment in which we operate and live. We value the benefits of diversity on the Board in providing the necessary skills, experience, knowledge and expertise to help the Company address today’s complex business challenges. We will continue to promote diversity in all its aspects. PUTTING ROBUST PARTNERSHIPS IN PLACE As Maxis continues to move strongly beyond basic voice and SMS services, we see collaboration as strategic to our efforts to deliver value to our customers. Network sharing is key to the deployment of network infrastructure faster across the country while optimising industry investments and avoiding duplication. OUR ACTIVE RADIO ACCESS NETWORK (“RAN”) SHARING PARTNERSHIP WITH U MOBILE, THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN SOUTH EAST ASIA, SHIFTED INTO HIGH GEAR IN 2012. MAXIS NOW PROVIDES 3G RAN ACCESS OVER 1,600 SITES TO U MOBILE. OUR ARRANGEMENT INCLUDES ACCESS TO ROAMING ON MAXIS’ NATIONWIDE 2G NETWORK TO ENSURE SEAMLESS SERVICES FOR U MOBILE SUBSCRIBERS. In July 2012, we were the first to support the Government’s call for spectrum sharing when we signed an important agreement with REDtone International Berhad to build common infrastructure. Between Maxis and REDtone, we now have a strong suite of LTE spectrum giving us the spread and opportunity to offer the best 4G LTE experience in Malaysia. OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH ASTRO, WHICH WAS CEMENTED DURING THE YEAR, WILL TAKE CONVERGENCE TO A NEW LEVEL, ENABLING US TO PROVIDE THE BEST CONTENT ACROSS ANY DEVICE AND AT ANY LOCATION, WHETHER AT HOME, AT WORK OR ON-THE-GO. We have also collaborated with independent software vendors to develop a suite of Business Mobility Solutions to help Malaysian businesses optimise the benefits arising from the convergence of integrated communications and IT services. Continued