LEAP 2023: Huawei regional president reiterates support for Saudi Aarbia's digital transformation goals

Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East and Central Asia, gave a keynote on the second day of LEAP, Saudi Arabia's largest and most comprehensive ICT exhibition. In his speech, Yi highlighted how Huawei works with partners to help the Kingdom build a more robust infrastructure to achieve its global computing power goals, including green and efficient data centers, AI platforms, and future computing architecture research.

Under the theme of ‘Unleash Digital’, Huawei is participating in LEAP 2023 as a Strategic Partner. At the event, Huawei is exhibiting its end-to-end innovations, focusing on 5.5G, cloud computing, AI, digital power, cybersecurity, and industry applications designed to meet the needs of various sectors, including government, utilities, oil and gas, health, energy, and more.

Steven Yi took note of Saudi Arabia's rapid digital transformation, particularly the government's pursuit of innovative e-government strategies.In parallel, he stated that Vision 2030 includes increasing the share of non-oil exports from 16% to 50% and improving the Kingdom’s GDP ranking in the global league table. “Global GDP growth has fluctuated dramatically over the last three years, owing to numerous uncertainties such as the COVID pandemic and high inflation. The digital economy, on the other hand, has remained strong; and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as one of the world’s largest economies, has maintained positive GDP growth throughout the uncertain period and thrives on economic diversification.”

Yi added that driving the economy’sexpansion was the industry's urgent demand for advanced digital technology to improve productivity, achieve industrial evolution, and promote economic development. "Huawei has always been committed to supporting the Saudi government and industry sectors in their digital transformation to achieve the Kingdom's vision. In Saudi Arabia, Huawei is actively cooperating with the government and industry partners to promote the evolution of the latest connectivity technology that will empower connectivity, allow ubiquitous uninterrupted giga internet access everywhere and meet industry requirements for reliability and ultra-low latency." he said.

To continue on this successful path, Yi mentioned that there is a continuous need to strengthen the country's digital infrastructure. Today, late starters and early adopters expect more from connectivity and computing. In terms of connectivity, Yi noted that Huawei is actively leading the evolution towards the 5.5G era, dramatically increasing network capacity, ensuring pervasive 10G speeds, and meeting the industry's requirements for reliable and low latency connectivity.

In parallel, enterprises need to make the most of cloud and achieve leapfrog development. "There is no doubt that the cloud is the future, especially in accelerating the industry's digital transformation. In Saudi, an increasing number of enterprises have included 'cloud first' in their transformation strategy and plan to migrate more than 50% of their businesses into the cloud. ," Yi observed.

Huawei is building a public cloud node in Saudi Arabia to help customers make the most of the cloud and build AI and IoT solutions based on HUAWEI CLOUD for smart cities, governments, and large enterprises.

Additionally, Yi noted that stronger local digital ecosystems are vital to supporting digital transformation. Towards this end, Huawei promotes open collaboration and shared success across localized digital ecosystems. In December 2022, an MoU was inked between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Huawei for a strategic partnership to realize the 10 Giga Society. He then expressed how adopting Huawei's advantages in Communication, Enterprise Solutions, Cloud, and green energy solutions will support Saudi to build a promising future in the full digital era.

Finally, Yi highlighted Huawei's support in cultivating a new generation of digital talent. Huawei has collaborated with governments, academia and industry to enrich the region's ICT talent ecosystem. CSR initiatives such as Seeds for the Future, the annual Huawei ICT Competition, Huawei ICT Academy, joint innovation centers, labs and other CSR initiatives empower thousands of Arab youth annually to supercharge their ICT careers. In the Middle East, Huawei has set up 167 Huawei ICT Academies training over 11,000 local digital talents, while more than 3,500 students have participated in the flagship program Seeds for the Future, helping over 40,000 people obtain Huawei certification. Overall, the company has trained over 120,000 ICT talents for the Middle East and is committed to achieving more in collaboration with partners.

Huawei's vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home, and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. The company consistently promotes an open approach to innovation, focusing on constructive dialogue, cross-industry cooperation, and exchanging expertise with countries in the Middle East and worldwide