Huawei Innovation Day sees discussion on sustainable ICT ecosystems of MEA region

Huawei, a global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, held the second annual Huawei Innovation Day with customers, partners and technology experts from the Middle East and Africa. 

The Huawei MEA Innovation Day 2022, which was held concurrently with GITEX GLOBAL 2022 and has as it’s topic “Collaboration to Unleash Innovation for Sustainable Digital Future,” was put together in association with the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO).

The event got the region’s government leaders from different sectors, industry analysts, ICT ecosystem partners and international standardization, and Huawei’s senior leadership team together.

Jeff Wang, Global President of Public Affairs and Communications at Huawei, delivered the opening keynote speech to highlight Huawei’s commitment to supporting the MEA digital transformation and ICT sustainability future. 

Jeff Wang said “We have heard from customers and partners from the Middle East and Africa who are leveraging our technologies to enable new business models, boost competitiveness and spur sustainable economic growth.”

The keynote speech was delivered by His Excellency Eng. Mohamed Ben Amor, Secretary General of the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO), which is the event partner. The speech observed the importance of cooperation between regional stakeholders and worldwide partners to build an integrated ICT ecosystem for a sustainable digital economy. 

H.E Ben Amor stated ” If ‘innovation’ was always and will remain the engine of economic and social progress with a profound transformational impact on our lives, technological innovation will be, without any doubt, the compulsory way towards a better digital future. Therefore, we highly trust that technological innovation will help transform challenges into opportunities and shorten the path to achieving our common goals. This requires, in particular, a strong regional and international cooperation framework to strengthen national and regional innovation systems and models leading to innovative and sustainable technological initiatives.”

Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East & Africa, added “We are honoured with the distinguished audience in our Innovation Day MEA 2022. Our mission remains to bring the broadest ICT ecosystem together to inspire change and deliver socioeconomic growth. We are hopeful the lessons we take from the event today will help bring us closer to an open, intelligent world that has been our mission from Day 1.”

Other keynotes were also delivered by important stakeholders like H.E. Dr Mohammed Al-Ohali, President of KFU (King Faisal University), Jawad Abbasi, Head of MENA, GSMA, H.E. Dr Fadia Kiwan, Director General of Arab Women Organization, H.E. Dr Khaled Wali, Director of the ICT Department at the League of the Arab States and H.E. Zhang Yiming, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to UAE.

Themes like green ICT for a sustainable future of sectors and industries, the ICT talent ecosystem, and empowering women in ICT in the MEA region were all discussed during this year’s Huawei MEA Innovation Day.

In a panel hosted by Toni Eid, founder of Telecom Review Group & CEO of Trace Media, panellists discussed the importance of open partnerships and collaborations for shared success in building the ICT Ecosystem in MEA, the role of Digital Power in telecom networks, and green solutions in the cloud.

Dr Jassim Haji, President of the International Group of Artificial Intelligence, Dr Fahem Al Nuaimi, CEO of Ankabut in the United Arab Emirates, and Dr Ammar Al Husaini, Deputy Director General at the Central Agency for Information Technology in Kuwait all spoke on the panel. H.E. Dr Elsadig Gamaleldeen Elsadig Karar, Director General of the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority of Sudan (TPRA), also attended.

Another discussion held was on the topic of empowering the role of women in tech which was moderated by Caroline Faraj, CNN VP and CNN Arabic Editor-in-Chief. 

Dr Mardin Abdullah Anwar, Director of ICT and Statistics at Salahaddin University, Erbil, Iraq, Dr. Fatma Taher, IEEE UAE Section Chair, Dr. Eman Said Al Abri, Dean of the College of Computing and Information Sciences, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Oman, and Rania Halimeh, Regional Director, META, Logical Operations attended the panel.

The importance of public-private partnerships in fostering innovation, development of local female ICT talent and future leaders, enhancement of university curriculum and programmes in light of ICT-accelerated innovation, and bridging the cybersecurity talent gap were just a few things the panel focused on. 

In the digital era, Huawei strongly believes that more opportunities and support must be given to women to ensure they have access to the education and training they need to be competitive in the digital economy. Equipping women with these skills has proven to promote social integration and inclusive and diversified societies. 

Shunli Wang, Huawei’s Vice President in the Middle East delivered the closing remarks during the event, and highlighted the need to lead new ways for public-private sector collaborations to drive shared success and “Unleash Innovation for a Sustainable Digital Future in MEA region”. Wang also mentioned Huawei’s focus on 5.5G which will soon become a reality, enabling a 10 Gbps experience and a hundred billion connections.  

Wang said “More markets in MEA – such as Jordan – have already announced the launch of 5G. We look forward to supporting Jordan in introducing the benefits of 5G, and we call for maintaining a fair, unbiased, and transparent 5G business environment. We believe that providing equal opportunities to global 5G vendors based on existing work track record, global experience, cost, and international standards effectiveness will ensure raising the bar in the competitiveness of the local telecom market and efficiently contribute to the national plans and visions.” 

Diving into emerging technologies Huawei highlighted the importance of cybersecurity and discussed the benefits of integrating technologies like 5G, Cloud, and AI in supporting verticals, key industries, businesses, and public services in the MEA region.

Building talent ecosystems to produce future ICT leaders and ideas for bolstering the ICT skill development path for important sectors and industries were two of the main topics Huawei examined at the Huawei MEA Innovation Day this year.

ICT talent is significant in driving digital transformation and realizing national plans and visions. In a panel discussion with key industry and academics, the role of public-private partnerships in fostering innovation and equipping the youth with the right tools to become future ICT leaders was highlighted.