Ken Hu, Huawei's Rotating Chairman, delivered a keynote outlining three ways the ICT ecosystem can help break through common barriers in digital transformation:

• Boost digital infrastructure, including more robust connectivity and stronger, more diverse computing resources.
• Help organizations go beyond simple cloud adoption and truly make the most of cloud, focusing on advanced technology services that drive leapfrog development.
• Build out local digital ecosystems including partner development, strengthening the digital talent pool, and providing more support for SMEs.

Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East & Africa Area, gave the opening remark that expressed gratitude to customers and partners for their ongoing trust, and reaffirmed Huawei's commitment to contributing to local development. He also talked about three key initiatives of Huawei and its customers and partners to unleash digital productivity. Together, they work to build a solid digital foundation for all and reinforce local digital ecosystems to support the future of digital nations.

Innovative, scenario-based technologies enhance digital infrastructure to unleash digital productivity

Bob Chen, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise BG, discussed how multi-tech synergy is critical for finding the right technology for the right scenario. He explained in his keynote speech "Innovative Digital Infrastructure Accelerates Digital Transformation" that "Data is at the core of digital transformation, and data ingestion, transmission, storage, and analysis are key steps. Huawei provides full-stack products and product portfolios to support end-to-end data processing, accelerating customers' digital transformation."

In terms of data connectivity, Huawei unveiled NetEngine AR5710, a hyper-converged gateway that is ideal for small and midsize branches, and NetEngine 8000 F8, an ultra-compact universal-service aggregation router. These all-new products are helping lay a solid data foundation to further unleash digital productivity.

In terms of data transmission, Huawei has been exploring how to apply the fifth generation fixed network (F5G) evolution across various industries. In addition, Huawei and a Dubai customer jointly launched a digital pipeline corridor inspection solution based on the optical fiber sensing technology, enabling automatic pipeline corridor inspection.

Regarding data storage, Huawei and Commvault, a data management software company, jointly launched a data protection solution that provides enterprise customers with secure and reliable data protection from end to end. This helps create a reliable and efficient storage foundation, allowing enterprises to maximize the value of data.

Joy Huang, President of Huawei Cloud Strategy & Industry Development, pointed out that Huawei's approach to digital transformation has three pillars: greener infrastructure, ongoing innovation, and shared experience. Huawei Cloud aims to be the best digitalization partner for customers, and is working with partners and customers to unleash digital with Everything as a Service.

Innovative infrastructure is being deployed in industries to drive industrial digitalization

At the event, customers from various industries in the Middle East and Africa also shared their best practices with Huawei in digital transformation.

Dr. Hesham Farouk Ali, Egypt's Assistant Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said that ICT would make education more people-centric and accelerate the transformation of both teaching and learning methods. Huawei's expertise in education and research networks, cloud, and AI is providing key support and laying groundwork for the digitalization of higher education in Egypt.

Baffajo Beita, CIO of Galaxy Backbone Limited, stated that Galaxy and Huawei have been innovating together to help Nigeria build a unified e-government cloud network, accelerating the government's digitalization and boosting the country's digital economy.

Huawei Empower Program: building a thriving digital ecosystem for global partners

At the event, Huawei launched the Huawei Empower Program, which aims to help develop a thriving digital ecosystem for global partners. Through this program, Huawei will conduct joint innovation with its partners via OpenLabs, empower partners with a new framework, a new plan, and an integrated platform, and create a talent pool through the Huawei ICT Academy and Huawei Authorized Learning Partner (HALP) programs. Huawei also announced an investment of US$300 million into this program over the next three years to support its global partners.

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