Kuwait’s ICT sector: A conversation with Abbas A. Fairouz

Abbas A. Fairouz, Assistant Professor at Kuwait University’s College of Engineering and Petroleum Computer Engineering Department, discusses Kuwait’s ICT sector, digital transformation in industries, and future developments and trends. Continue reading to learn more.

TECHx: The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation among different verticals such as education, healthcare, etc. What are your thoughts on the changing role of the ICT sector in Kuwait and how is this strengthening Kuwait’s position as a leading ICT hub?

Abbas: The pandemic has played an important role in the acceleration of digital transformation across various industries in Kuwait. This is especially evident in the education sector, where classroom education shifted to distance learning. It transformed the way we engaged with our students from teaching to test-taking.

Clearly, ICT is playing a promising role in Kuwait and therefore, we should continue to emphasize building a foundation for enhancing the ICT sector in Kuwait by involving students and individuals in training courses and applying their knowledge in the industry.

TECHx: What verticals do you see accelerating their digital transformation plans in the next decade?

Abbas: Technology is a key contributor to socio-economic growth and progress within the ICT field has facilitated improvements across the healthcare, education and retail industries. These industries truly understood the importance of quickly implementing digital technologies into their existing systems to achieve better performance in their operations and be prepared for any crisis that could occur in the future.

In healthcare, telehealth can cost-effectively expand medical care to all and help determine who needs emergency assistance. Doctors can provide care via telehealth to patients who cannot physically come to their clinic.

Digital education allows students to finish their studies online. This enables them to study where they want, from whichever school they want and in their own time. Online education eliminates the need to travel long distances and take time off work.

On the other hand, e-commerce delivers cost savings to consumers through lower prices, while e-online shopping sites can offer more discounts and promotions that are easier to claim. Shopping when you want from where you want is far preferable where customers do not have to venture out, wait in lines or battle the weather. Ecommerce also greatly expands product range, giving consumers more choice

TECHx: In your opinion, how can governments, businesses and universities empower local talent? Are there enough initiatives in place?

Abbas: Talent development is a long and demanding process but will allow us to build a strong foundation for a digital-led social-economic transformation. As a knowledge-intensive industry, ICT depends heavily on talent resources, and the flourishing ICT ecosystem further increases this demand for talent.

Governments, ICT companies and university need to collaborate together to make efforts and support ICT talent training. For example, Huawei is one of the strong partners in actively training talents and supporting students in  Kuwait and the rest of the region. Initiatives such as Huawei ICT Academy, the Huawei Innovation Competition, Seeds for the Future program, joint university labs, and other initiatives, support Kuwait’s ambitions of promoting innovation, nurturing homegrown talent, and fostering a supportive environment for the ICT sector.

As the demand for ICT talent continues to rise, pursuing new partnerships will further stimulate youth’s interest in learning, their innovation capabilities and boost employment in the coming decades. We need more collaborative projects across the region that focus on artificial intelligence, machine learning, cybersecurity, cloud services, robotics and automation, IoT involved in smart cities (and smart cars).

Moreover, we need to redefine the role of universities. Universities in Kuwait must extend beyond the confines of physical campuses. Building on the gains in e-learning during the pandemic, we can leverage video conferencing and smart learning technology to provide education anywhere at any time. While campuses will remain relevant, a hybrid model should emerge where classrooms and online platforms play complementary and equally important roles in education delivery.       

TECHx: What are the vital skills needed among the youth of the country?

Abbas: High-level languages (HLL) such as Python and Java are commonly used for implementing software applications. For system development, our students need to understand the hardware architecture of our general-purpose digital integrated circuits (IC) chips such as CPUs and GP-GPUs, and the hardware/software interface.

Therefore, we can start training middle school students programming microcontrollers, such as micro: bit or Arduino boards. These microcontroller boards can give a decent understanding of software and hardware interface as well as the hardware architecture of processors and programming them using a high level language (HLL) such as C/C++.

Raspberry pi boards (or similar boards) can be used in such development. The Raspberry pi board is a System-on-Chip (SoC) that is operated by an ARM-based microprocessor and attached to different modules such as a WiFi /BT module.

Building a strong foundation of computer systems among young students will boost employability in the long run.

TECHx: What key developments and trends do you see emerging that will shape this next decade in Kuwait?

Abbas: Innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing and the Internet of things (IoT) in the information communications technology (ICT) area have become an important engine for driving the digital transformation of the social economy, and are facilitating the growth of the ICT industry.

We are also seeing digital software applications emerging and developing rapidly in Kuwait, besides other sectors such as healthcare, education, etc.  Many companies are quickly implementing new technologies to keep up with the changing environment. The key to this is developing a talent development strategy and investing in the country’s ICT talent.

These investments will positively improve the diversity of resources, initiate new jobs, and create a collaborative ecosystem with leading countries and companies worldwide.