Huawei Technologies cited for progresses and trainees in Asia-Pacific and beyond

Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd has been cited for its dedication to providing free online certification training for learners worldwide by representatives of UN agency and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Maki Katsuno-Hayashikawa, director and representative of UNESCO Regional Office in Jakarta, told a gathering at the ASEAN Headquarters in the Indonesian capital that trainees of the Huawei ICT Academy 2.0 program had proven themselves more competitive in the labor market, with many now flourishing with careers in the ICT industries.

"Through collaborative efforts with UNESCO, Huawei has exemplified how enterprises play a crucial role in accelerating progress towards SDG 4 by facilitating the creation of quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities," Hayashikawa told hundreds of participants in the 8th Huawei ICT Competition APAC Finals and Award Ceremony 2023-24.

The event was jointly organized by Huawei and the ASEAN Foundation on April 18. Secretary General of ASEAN Kao Kim Hourn delivered welcoming remarks at the occasion and issued some awards to top winners.

SG Dr Kao, in meeting President of Huawei Asia Pacific Simon Lin Bai Feng at the ASEAN Headquarters on April 18, highlighted ASEAN's commitment to promoting digital innovation through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, such as Huawei.

They further discussed potential areas of collaboration between ASEAN and Huawei to facilitate the implementation of the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025, according to the ASEAN secretariat.

The 8th ICT competition has been participated in by more than 6,400 university and college students from the Asia-Pacific region. The Global Final of the Huawei Competition is scheduled next month in Shenzhen, China.

The annual contest was first launched in 2015, and the Award Ceremony on April 18 saw the attendance of 20 winning teams from Asian countries. Indonesia's Bandung Institute of Technology received the Grand Prize in Network Track, Philippines' Cebu Institute of Technology secured the Grand Prize in Innovation Track, Singapore Polytechnic won the Grand Prize in Cloud Track and the Grand Prize in Computing Track went to Philippines' i-Academy.

Simon Lin Bai Feng, president of Huawei Asia Pacific; M.I. Derry Aman, permanent representative of Indonesia to ASEAN and Chair of the Board of Trustees of ASEAN Foundation; and Alex Zhang Fupeng, vice-president of Huawei Asia-Pacific were joined by ambassadors to ASEAN from the association's member countries and representatives of international organizations at the gathering.

Aman emphasized the crucial role of digital skills for economy development in the current digital era. Accordingly, the young generation worldwide needs to be provided with certified trainings like the given by the Huawei ICT Academy.

President Lin said that Huawei Technologies, founded in 1987 and now one of the world's ICT giants, is serving more than 1.1 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region. In Many countries, it built first fiber optic cables and base stations to connect people to the outside world, and with ICT infrastructure more people can have better access to information and opportunities.

"As we often say, Rome wasn't built in a day. Talent development requires long-term and collective efforts," Lin said when expressing his appreciation to the support given by the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Foundation, UNESCO and others.

Speaking with China Daily on the sidelines of the meeting, Lin said that Huawei has a dream to support the Asia-Pacific to grow very fast.

"And Huawei just wants to work as a responsible citizen, do more contribution for the technology and for the talent development," he said.

He said they were grateful that right now more and more countries in Asia-Pacific recognize the importance of digitalization. Most of the countries had already announced their digital master plan.

Vice-President Zhang said that under Huawei's open and collaborative ICT industry ecosystem, the company will build an open and healthy industry system with customers and partners. In the Asia-Pacific region, it has established partnerships with more than 9,000 enterprises, more than 2,000 cloud partners and more than 300 universities.

Abdul Latif, a lecturer at Bandung Institute of Technology, said he and his four-member team from the school were so excited to win the Huawei Grand Prize.

The team, which is comprised of four students from different departments, started a year ago to focus their training for this year's competition with Latif acting as facilitator. He said he and his team were so excited to proceed to next month's final competition in Shenzhen.

"With the knowledge and skills we get from Huawei we hope we will be able to by the (necessary) equipment for applying them," he told after the gathering.

Zhou Fan Chen, who is in his final year at Singapore Polytechnic which won Grand Prize in Cloud Track, said he and his team had done their practical and training with Huawei teachers from two years ago.

"We learned a lot of things like AI and also framework and application development," he said.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.