David Shi, President of Huawei Enterprise Middle East & Central Asia has written an op-ed outlining how he believes that sustainable ICT, innovation and partnerships are key to drive the new intelligent era. 
The world is on the verge of a new intelligent era powered by the fifth wave of industrial revolution.
The emerging digital economy takes data resources as the key element, with digital infrastructure as the “highway.”
With the synergistic development of transmission power, computing power and storage power, digital infrastructure maximizes the value of data and unleashes the digital economy’s full potential.
A highly intelligent world is accelerating, transforming the digital economy into an intelligent one.
This emerging era is evident across the Middle East and Central Asia (ME&CA), where countries are prioritizing the digital transformation of their public and private sector organizations, preparing for the emergent intelligent world.
This digital transformation will be pivotal for the region’s economic development and social progress.
High-performance computing (HPC) and AI are crucial in powering the ME&CA digital economy.
Saudi Arabia has formulated Saudi Vision 2030 strategy, aiming to develop HPC and AI technologies to improve global competitiveness.
The country also established the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) to support the R&D of HPC and AI projects.
Qatar also released National Vision 2030 to propel HPC and AI technologies.
The Qatar Computing Research Institute is Qatar’s foremost research institute focusing on HPC and AI with the mission to promote technological innovation.
The UAE established the National AI Strategy 2031 and appointed the world’s first Minister for AI.
Kazakhstan meanwhile has launched the Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Support Fund to develop AI in Kazakhstan in the educational, research, scientific, technical, social, cultural, sustainable development and other crucial social-economic spheres.
To demonstrate how these technologies can power a new world, Huawei, together with IEEE, recently launched the ‘HPC Lossless Ethernet and AI Fabric Network’ Technical White Paper at the recent Huawei ME&CA Tech Carnival in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The report highlights how regional countries are proactively formulating policies conducive to developing HPC and AI to promote digital transformation and how lossless Ethernet is and will keep playing a pivotal role in these efforts.
In pursuing these goals, we must consider the environmental impact as we embrace technology and extend digital networks.
The world faces a growing urgency to address environmental issues like climate change and resource scarcity. We should aspire to work together to protect the environment and preserve the digital economy by incorporating eco-friendly and energy-efficient ICT infrastructure.
Furthermore, computing capability has grown by leaps and bounds in the digital era and consequently, the corresponding energy consumption is also increasing.
In this scenario, green and low-carbon development, combined with digital and intelligent transformation, are the two main forces driving the fourth industrial revolution forward. ICT is, therefore, essential in boosting industry-wide green practices; adapting ICT-enabled digital solutions can help reduce global carbon emissions by 20% by 2030.
The ME&CA Tech Carnival was an ideal opportunity to recommit ourselves to a sustainable planet. In collaboration with GlobalData, a leading data analytics and consulting company, Huawei unveiled the Net Zero Campus Framework, a comprehensive guide for campuses to achieve net zero carbon emissions by leveraging Huawei’s expertise in campus networking and smart campus solutions.
The framework helps campuses assess their current situation and plan their transition to clean energy sources while meeting the growing demand for digital services and data processing.
Digital talent plays a critical role in driving this digital transformation and advancing the digital economy. But the world faces an acute ICT talent gap, with research forecasting a shortage of more than 10 million ICT professionals worldwide in the next decade.
Collaboration between tech companies, industry, academia and government is the most viable path for advancing ICT skills.
At the Partner Summit held alongside the ME&CA Tech Carnival, Huawei signed an MoU with Avicom, a leading ICT provider in Azerbaijan, to establish an Experience & Training Innovation Center in the country.
This new partnership adds to the various Huawei CSR programs targeting talent development across ME&CA, including Seeds for the Future, ICT Academy, Huawei ICT Competition, Huawei Innovation Competition, Joint Innovation Centers and joint labs with universities and government authorities.
It’s apparent that driving social progress and tackling global challenges requires the wisdom of the crowd, propped up by an open, inclusive, and collaborative approach to innovation. So as an industry, we need to work more closely with all stakeholders, informing and supporting scientific research and presenting world-class challenges that not only confront our industry but humanity as a whole.
A collaborative approach to innovation – informed by industrial challenges and academic insight and supported by a venture capital mindset – will pave the way for the intelligent world of 2030.
To this end, Huawei is actively working with industry and ecosystem partners worldwide, promoting joint innovation between governments, businesses, academia, research institutes, and users to create practical value based on the needs of different industries.
We work closely with different countries and industries and promote cross-domain and cross-technology collaboration in various forms, tackling real-world problems that different industries face.
To date, Huawei enjoys relationships with more than 30,000 enterprise partners worldwide, including sales partners, solution partners, service operations partners, talent alliances, investment and financing partners, industry organizations, and industry partners.
Across the global marketplace, Huawei continues to invest in partner development, cultivation, motivation, and support programs.
Huawei firmly believes that openness and collaboration lead to shared success.
In the ME&CA region, we have worked with many leading carriers to roll out 5G, partnered with local cities and governments to bring smart cities to realization, launched cloud regions in UAE and KSA to power region-wide digital transformation and joined forces with top local universities to train and certify thousands of skilled ICT talent.
We will continue working with our regional industry and ecosystem partners to build a healthy and harmonious business ecosystem, ultimately bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.
