Dhaka — The tech giant Huawei has announced its Seeds for the Future Program 2.0 recently at the “Tech & —Sustainability: Everyone’s Included” forum. Through the program, the company plans to invest $150 million in digital talent development over the next five years expecting to benefit more than three million people.
The forum organized at Shenzhen, China, was co-hosted by Huawei and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Representatives from Huawei, IUCN, the World Economic Forum, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) participated to discuss the role of technology in driving sustainability and building a more inclusive, eco-friendly world.
As an echo for the forum, Huawei Asia Pacific held the APAC Media Virtual Roundtable with a laser focus on addressing digital inclusion and sustainable development of this region. Jay Chen, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, announced Huawei’s plan to cultivate more than 40,000 ICT talent in the next five years through multiple programs including Seeds for the Future in the region.
“In the digital economy, digital talent is playing an increasingly important role in driving digital transformation and economic growth. Access to education is vital for creating opportunities that support sustainable and fair development.
Due to the pandemic, we are moving the program online and opening it up to more outstanding students than ever before,” said Jay Chen.
According to a 2020 report by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), about 2.2 billion people aged 25 years or younger still lack internet connections at home.
To improve the situation, Huawei is committed to helping develop digital talent in the countries where it operates. In 2008, Huawei began to roll out talent development programs through scholarships, technology competitions, and digital skills training and has invested more than USD150 million in these programs.
Huawei has since benefited more than 1.54 million people from over 150 countries.
The Seeds for the Future program, initiated in Bangladesh in 2014, is similarly designed to inspire local talents and encourage them to tackle digital challenges.
In Bangladesh, the program has so far seen participation from around 6,000 students. Besides, to better equip the students with digital facilities, Huawei had partnered with local online learning platform Bijoy Digital to provide digital solutions to the capital’s T&T High school and its branches across Bangladesh to facilitate distance learning during the pandemic.
Other talent development programs of the company in Bangladesh include ICT Competition, ICT Academy, and Digital Training Bus in collaboration with various private and public sector organizations and agencies. The programs so far have benefitted numerous young students of Bangladesh so far.
Huawei has been a firm enabler in the Asia Pacific for building an inclusive talent ecosystem.
Huawei ASEAN Academy has been launched in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia since 2019 and has cultivated more than 100,000 talents for preparing for the digital future. Huawei has built collaborations with around 200 universities in countries across the Asia Pacific.
