Building A Dynamic Digital Industry Hub

By Shunli Wang, Vice President of Huawei ME & Central Asia

A new chapter of intelligent transformation is underway. We now stand at the threshold of a new, intelligent world with vast opportunities and challenges. ICT industry digitalization is already well underway, while enterprises across sectors are improving products, operations, and relationships by applying digital technologies to drive business growth.

Yet, requirements for digital transformation vary from one enterprise to another. Therefore, it would be impossible for a single ICT company to solve every enterprise problem independently.

Digital transformation relies on collaboration; there is a pressing need in the region to focus on exploring more collaboration bridges to help all industries maximize new strategic opportunities through advanced networks, cloud, AI, and green energy, safeguarded with leading cybersecurity capabilities and solutions. This means we need to prioritize building the region’s ICT ecosystem.

Building the right industry ecosystem is about actively working with diverse partners – including governments, businesses, academia, research institutes, and users, to promote joint innovations and create practical value based on the needs of different industries. It is also about working closely with partners to support cross-domain and cross-technology collaboration in various forms to tackle real-world problems. Cultivating an ecosystem conducive to healthy and coordinated cross-sector development, driving the digital economy forward and helping to speed up the intelligent world is vital for the digital transformation journey of all countries in the region.

The ICT infrastructure business comprises the carrier and enterprise businesses. Based on innovative products and solutions, collaborations in the ICT infrastructure business should work to build an open ecosystem and serve carriers, governments, and enterprises, and, more broadly, every person, home, and organization.

These developments have immense socioeconomic benefits. According to research by GSMA Intelligence, there will be 9.8 billion mobile connections by 2030, of which 5.3 billion will be 5G. The study suggests that a 10% increase in mobile adoption leads to a 1% GDP growth.

5G is driving the digital transformation of industries. It has already been identified as a critical part of new economic transformation, and its rollout is already driving a massive digital revolution and boosting the global economy. The development of global 5G in network, deployment, ecology and experience is unparalleled. Whether for individuals, families or organizations, 5G creates unprecedented value. The 5G ecosystem is a crucial pillar for the digital economy in the region, with some countries pioneering global 5G success. Working closely with customers and partners to focus on 5G innovative applications, advancing the 5G ecosystem, and accelerating 5G commercial success are all key drivers for building the region’s digital economy.

5G-Advanced (5G-A) is the next revolution in 5G technology. We need to work together to promote the development of device and application ecosystems, verify use case scenarios, and accelerate the large-scale commercialization of 5G-A, the natural evolution of the 5G ecosystem. One of the significant advantages of 5G-A is its ability to upgrade network capabilities by 10X and support a 10 Gbps experience, enabling 100 billion connections and native intelligence for numerous services. Huawei’s ‘Gigabit Society’ vision leverages technology across multiple domains to provide an era of ubiquitous connectivity and intelligence, unlocking new opportunities for growth and innovation across various regional industries.

Cloud is the foundation for the digital economy and is pivotal to realizing the national visions of regional countries. Cloud providers should foster an ecosystem that aggregates the applications of numerous industries and a platform that empowers partners and developers with new innovations and solutions. Huawei Cloud remains committed to building an ecosystem of all, by all, and for all. In the Middle East and Central Asia, Huawei Cloud welcomed over 80 new local enterprises to our partner programs in 2023, bringing the total number of regional ecosystem partners to 288. We are keen to develop customized cloud solutions of value from a regional culture and business perspective. Huawei Cloud has introduced ‘Pangu Model Reshaping AI for Industries’ and announced Pangu Model 3.0, the first-of-its-kind commercial Arabic model trained with hundreds of billions of parameters, surpassing other models in understanding and generation capabilities.

Digitalization and decarbonization are the way forward. In line with our commitment to sustainability, our Digital Power leverages intelligent energy data to help achieve carbon neutrality. Our net Zero Campus and carbon-conscious ICT business models are unique industry propositions to support other regional industries and governments in attaining sustainability commitments in line with national targets and the UN SDGs. To that end, Huawei Digital Power is implementing an ecosystem strategy that promotes openness and collaboration in the green energy and environment-friendly ICT domain.

We actively participate in standards organizations, industry alliances, and industry associations and work with our partners to promote product and technology innovations, drive industry consensus, and facilitate the formulation and implementation of relevant standards and specifications. Huawei is an active member of approximately 800 standards organizations, industry alliances, open-source communities, and academic associations. We currently hold more than 450 key positions within these organizations. We have established industry collaboration platforms with industry organizations, think tanks, academia, and enterprises worldwide. Through these platforms, we jointly explore key topics and share knowledge and expertise to offer solutions to industry challenges. Huawei was the first multinational technology corporation to sign the Organization of The Islamic Cooperation – Computer Emergency Response Teams (OIC–CERT) membership in 2021, a testament to our commitment to support our regional partners in driving 5G security standardization and other international practices.

New developments in cloud computing, intelligence, and software-defined everything pose unprecedented challenges to the cyber security of ICT infrastructure. Safeguarding cyber security is the responsibility of all industry players and society. Further, creating trust is a process that must be structured to bring together all representative stakeholder voices committed to unified standards and willing to take part in establishing a cybersecurity ecosystem. Therefore, Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSP) and collaboration between all stakeholders are essential. Users, regulators, industry experts, and governments need to leverage the collective knowledge of stakeholders such as the ITU, GSMA, local governments, academics and other ICT corporations and players, without which industry innovation will be stifled and risks cannot be identified early enough.

Talent remains a crucial part of our ecosystem-building approach in the region. In the digital era, the priority should be bridging the gap between talent supply and demand. We are committed to building talent alliances, developing talent standards, improving skills, and promoting the value of talent. We strive to create educational, industry, and public talent ecosystems to enhance digital skills across society and develop technologies and industries.

Openness, Transparency and Collaboration are the three concepts driving the ICT industry and its value to other sectors and industries. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, a lasting value can be created and optimized to empower people, enrich lives, and inspire innovation.