MUSCAT: Huawei, a leading 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.
Held in parallel with Gitex GLOBAL 2022, the Huawei MEA Innovation Day 2022 was organised in partnership with the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO) under the theme of "Collaboration to Unleash Innovation for Sustainable Digital Future". The annual event gathered the region's government leaders from different sectors, industry analysts, ICT ecosystem partners and international standardisation, and Huawei's senior leadership team.
Jeff Wang, Global President of Public Affairs and Communications Huawei, delivered the opening keynote speech to highlight Huawei's commitment to supporting the MEA digital transformation and ICT sustainability future.
Participating in a panel discussion that covered the importance of empowering the role of women in technology, Dr Eman al Abri, Dean of the College of Computing and Information Sciences, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, said, “Online education and work-from-home environments have eliminated the physical barriers that held back women from achieving their full potential in the Middle East and Africa. Now, we can further leverage technology to boost inclusivity through online training and upskilling.”
She added, “As a university, we see the immense value of engaging the government and private sector in preparing our students for the job market and closing the gap between theory and practical knowledge. Additionally, industry training and professional certificates effectively empower students with practical knowledge to further their careers.”
The panel, moderated by Caroline Faraj, CNN VP and CNN Arabic Editor-in-Chief, was attended by Dr Fatma Taher, IEEE UAE Section Chair, Dr Mardin Abdullah Anwar, Director of ICT and Statistics at Salahuddin University, Erbil, Iraq, and Rania Halimeh, Regional Director, META, Logical Operations.
Panelists discussed the importance of improving university curriculums and programmes in light of ICT accelerated innovation, and filling the talent gap in cybersecurity, among other topics.
Eng Mohamed Ben Amor, Secretary-General of the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO), the event partner, delivered the keynote speech, highlighting the importance of collaboration between various regional stakeholders and global partners to build an integrated ICT ecosystem for a sustainable digital economy.
"We are delighted with this collaboration with Huawei around an insightful topic increasingly becoming the keystone for sustainable technological development," Ben Amor stated, adding, "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 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 will help bring us closer to an open, intelligent world that has been our mission from Day 1."
Additionally, various keynotes were also delivered by Dr Fadia Kiwan, Director-General of Arab Women Organization, Dr Khaled Wali, Director of the ICT Department at the League of Arab States, Eng Mohamed Ben Amor, Secretary-General of the Arab ICT Organization, Dr Mohammed al Ohali, President of KFU (King Faisal University), and Jawad Abbasi, Head of MENA, GSMA.
The second panel discussion, hosted by Toni Eid, founder of Telecom Review Group & CEO of Trace Media, covered 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 cloud.
The panel was attended by Dr Elsadig Gamaleldeen Elsadig Karar, Director-General of the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority of Sudan (TPRA), Dr Jassim Haji, President, International Group of Artificial Intelligence, and Dr Ammar al Husaini, Deputy Director-General at Central Agency for Information Technology, Kuwait.
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.
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