Huawei concludes '10th APAC ICT Competition' finals

Huawei also launches new AI talent initiatives and a new ICT skills white paper

Huawei held ‘The 10th Huawei ICT Competition APAC Finals and Awards Ceremony’ at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. [Photo Provided by Huawei]

Huawei held ‘The 10th Huawei ICT Competition APAC Finals and Awards Ceremony’ at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia, and has moved to expand the cultivation of ICT talent in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Huawei on May 14, over 8,600 students from 14 countries and regions, including South Korea, participated in this year’s competition. The students competed to demonstrate their ICT capabilities in the Practice Competition, which consisted of Cloud, Network, and Computing tracks, and in the Innovation Competition. After several selection rounds, a total of PAC finals.

In his opening speech, Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-Geover 160 students from 13 countries and regions advanced to the Aneral of ASEAN, emphasized, “Fostering young talent is the driving force for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the ASEAN region,” adding, "As highlighted in the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2030, digital talent is at the core of ASEAN’s future vision.”

At the event, Huawei also unveiled new collaborations and initiatives for cultivating artificial intelligence (AI) talent. Peter Pan, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, stated, “Marking the 10th anniversary of the Huawei ICT Competition, we will continue to expand innovation and collaboration and actively support the cultivation of the next generation of digital talent in the Asia-Pacific region.”

In the Innovation Competition, the team from the National University of Singapore won the Grand Prize, recognized for its innovation and commercial and social value. In the Practice Competition, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology from Vietnam took the Grand Prize in the Computing and Cloud tracks, while Bulacan State University won the Grand Prize in the Network track. A total of 16 teams, including the Grand Prize winners, are scheduled to participate as APAC representatives in the global finals to be held in Shenzhen, China, this coming June.

The event also featured the first overseas release of the white paper ‘ICT Job Roles and Core Competencies in the Intelligent Era’. This white paper was jointly developed by Huawei, △IDC (International Data Corporation), △the OpenAtom Foundation, and △the Global Intelligent Internet of Things Consortium. The white paper presents the changes in ICT job roles, core competencies, and educational directions for the intelligent era.

Key figures attended the event, including Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN; Fauzan Aziman, Director General of Research and Development at the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology of Indonesia; Boni Pudjianto, Head of the Human Resources Development Agency at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs of Indonesia; Ambassador Sarah Al Bakri Devadason, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the ASEAN Foundation; Wang Qing, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to ASEAN; Nararya S. Soeprapto, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs; Piti Srisangnam, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation; and Kishore Babu Yerraballa, Head of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area Office for Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Huawei Korea signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with domestic universities last August to support the development of global IT leadership among South Korean youth. The agreements were made with Dongguk University, Ewha Womans University, and Hanyang University, and were based on Huawei’s flagship corporate social responsibility program, ‘Seeds for the Future’.

Kim Eun-jin