Huawei MEA Innovation Day: Dr Jassim Haji discusses transformative technologies

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

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 organized 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 standardization, 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.

Dr. Jassim Haji, President, International Group of Artificial Intelligence, participated in a panel discussion that discussed 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.

He said, “With a plethora of AI policies and strategies, research, development and investments in the green transition and the circular economy introduced worldwide, we are seeing the real potential of transformative technologies such as AI for sustainable development goals.”

The panel was hosted by Toni Eid, founder of Telecom Review Group & CEO of Trace Media, and attended by Dr Elsadig Gamaleldeen Elsadig Karar, Director General of the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority of Sudan (TPRA) and Dr Ammar Al Husaini, Deputy Director General at Central Agency for Information Technology, Kuwait.

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.

Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East & Africa, added: "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, Dr Mohammed Al-Ohali, President of KFU (King Faisal University) and Jawad Abbasi, Head of MENA, GSMA.

The second-panel discussion moderated by Caroline Faraj, CNN VP and CNN Arabic Editor-in-Chief, shed light on the important topic of empowering the role of women in tech.

The panel was attended by Dr Fatma Taher, IEEE UAE Section Chair, Dr Eman Said Al Abri, Dean of the College of Computing and Information Sciences, the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Oman, Dr Mardin Abdullah Anwar, Director of ICT and Statistics at Salahaddin University, Erbil, Iraq and Rania Halimeh, Regional Director, META, Logical Operations.

Panelists discussed the importance of public and private partnerships to nurture innovation, local female ICT talents and create ICT future leaders, improve university curriculums and programs in light of ICT accelerated innovation, and fill the talent gap in cybersecurity, among other topics.

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.