Steven Yi (right), President of Huawei Middle East and Ammar Tobba, regional head of corporate communications and public affairs, Huawei Middle East, during the media roundtable held on the sidelines of the GITEX Global 2021 summit.
Doha: Huawei has great confidence in the Qatar market and the telecommunications giant aims to use its ICT technology to support the success of World Cup Qatar 2022, a top executive of Huawei has said.
“Our growth in any market comes from supporting the business success of our customers, creating value for them, for the countries and the people. Huawei has been in Qatar for nearly 20 years. Our products and solutions serve carriers, enterprises, governments, and consumers. Qatar has put forward its 2030 national vision and goals and will host the important event of 2022 World Cup,” said Steven Yi, President of Huawei Middle East, replying to the question by The Peninsula.
“We have great confidence in the Qatar market. Our priority now is to support the success of the World Cup in Qatar. And we hope to use our ICT technology to help make it the most secure World Cup with the best experience in the world,” he said.
Steven Yi was speaking with journalists from around the region on the sidelines of the GITEX Global 2021 summit held recently in Dubai.
He said that Huwaei’s technologies will be deployed to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030. “Qatar has proposed its 2030 vision. We hope to use Huawei’s latest technologies and solutions to help Qatar achieve this vision and strategy,” said Yi.
He said that the 5G deployment has been quite successful in the Middle East. 5G is the most important infrastructure for the digital future.
“Once the penetration rate of 5G subscribers is high enough, there will be solid business returns. If it exceeds the 20% threshold, 5G will enter a rapid growth. Up to now, the number of 5G subscribers in GCC countries has reached 7 million,” he added. “It is estimated that this number will exceed 10 million by the end of this year, which is 2 million more than our forecast in April, and the 5G penetration rate will reach 20 percent. Globally, 176 commercial 5G networks have been deployed. In the Middle East, most GCC countries have made good progress,” he added.
“Talent is the cornerstone for a digital economy. While each Middle East country has different plans for different situations, talent cultivation must be our long-term strategy,” commented Yi. The executive cited how Huawei alone plans to train 100,000 ICT talent across the Middle East over the next three years, working with local universities and relevant organizations and governments.
As more industries across the Middle East embrace digital transformation, a focus on collaborative development will be pivotal to extending the gains achieved to date, he said.
In cloud alone, approximately 81 percent of enterprises globally now use cloud-based applications, with Yi wanting to extend these benefits to countries in the Middle East. Huawei recently announced investing $15m to support cloud-oriented ecosystem development in the region, with Huawei Cloud having already developed more than 100 local partners in the Middle East. Huawei Cloud and partners are now covering 27 regions and serve over 170 countries.
“In the past two years, the development of new technologies and the new normal under the pandemic has accelerated the advent of a digital world,” said Yi. The executive spoke on how that spirit of collaboration in the ICT domain can open new windows of socio-economic progress in line with countries’ national development agendas. Yet it will also take a concerted effort to drive digitalization in ways that will create value for all.”
“Openness and globalization are irreversible trends. Almost every country has now formulated its national strategies, and the integration of advanced technologies such as 5G, cloud, and AI will significantly serve the targets of building digital economies and achieving these visions and targets,” noted Yi.
In this regard, Huawei has openly collaborated with government entities to contribute to their national visions and develop their ICT ecosystems. As a result, Yi confirmed that the company’s business has continued to grow in the region.
