Huawei Connect 2022, the flagship event of the Chinese giant is being held this year in Bangkok for a period which runs from September 19 to 21 with the theme “Unleash digital”.
Focused around the industry, this annual event is an opportunity for the Huawei Group to demonstrate how new technologies can adapt to the new challenges facing industries, and allow technology to create value in terms of development. and growth.
As part of this event, Huawei organized a remote regional press conference, hosted by Adnane Ben Halima, Vice President of Public Relations for Huawei Northern Africa, to answer questions from participants on the topics of physical and digital infrastructure, the SPARK program, artificial intelligence, 5G, etc.
“Digital is the only tool that will allow us to move faster and this has been proven in several regions of the world during the last three years when the traditional economy has struggled to grow while the digital economy has experienced its full expansion”, emphasizes Ben Halima.
E-gov: What is Huawei’s contribution to accelerating digital services in African government?
Digital consumption affects both the private and public sectors, especially now that public administrations need this tool to digitize themselves and to manage the lives of citizens in an efficient and virtual way.
Regarding the project, the main component is the infrastructure necessary to provide technology to manage the services offered to citizens digitally. As a result, it would be necessary to have the means to store information, to process it and to offer it. It would also be necessary to have a good infrastructure so that the point of connectivity of all the administrations can offer this service in a correct way.
The first layer to achieve this is to talk regarding a national data center, a national cloud and connectivity between the data centers of all government branches.
We are currently conducting studies with our local partners to propose a clear roadmap for the development of these infrastructures while taking into account local constraints and the funding schedule.
On the other hand, the state of progress differs from one country to another, but the trend remains the same. What is good is that there is a conscience at the highest level of the State of almost all countries: digital is a priority.
Cloud: With which countries are you currently in discussion and what is being put in place?
Huawei is a cloud provider from two perspectives, it provides cloud infrastructure and at the same time has its own public cloud offering which is deployed in almost all 170 countries.
Discussions are ongoing and I can’t provide more information as the subject is still in the development stage. But I can tell you that there are quite a few countries in the region that have made good progress on the subject and some are even in the process of implementation. This is very good news, especially since the national cloud is the basis and foundation for the development of the e-gov service for the future.
SPARK: What industries does Huawei target?
SPARK is an international program that started in the Asia Pacific region last year and will be implemented towards the end of this year in the North Africa region.
It aims to help startups develop by providing them with our know-how, our products and our notoriety to make them shine. We’re going to basically offer a few offerings that include cloud capabilities. This will be in the form of free access for startups that need these resources.
We will support the selected startups in terms of training, and prepare workshop and brainstorming sessions for them to improve the “go to market” and the development of the business plan. The brightest startups will be able to participate with us in all the major events in the world.
It will be a boost, whether in terms of technical skills or international visibility.
ICT Academy: what is the purpose of this program?
This training program dates back a few years now and consists of developing cooperation with universities in each country, to train teachers in order to be able to deliver training via new technologies such as Big Data, AI, the Cloud. , 5G…
Huawei also offers the possibility of certification so that accredited people can enter the world of work.
5G: is it related to Cybersecurity?
I want to mention that there is no commercial application of 5G in Africa, there is only one in South Africa while other countries are just experimenting with 5G networks but have not still not benefit from a commercial launch.
I think that 2023 will be an extremely rich year at this level, we are going to detail this with several countries whether in North or South Africa.
Furthermore, 5G represents a continuity and not an isolated technology. It is not specifically related to cybersecurity, which has been around for a long time, at least when dealing with data online.
On the one hand, Huawei complies with all international regulations and all applicable laws in terms of cybersecurity compliance. In addition, the group has built more than 1,500 networks worldwide with operators, and has more than 3 billion people using them.
So far, no cases of failure related to cybersecurity have been detected on Huawei networks. It is the result of a great awareness of this issue since it is not a novelty but rather a subject of priority.
It should be remembered that Huawei is a major player in terms of providing infrastructure ranging from the cloud and connectivity to the “device” part. The Chinese group combines multiple advanced technologies in more than 26 product portfolios.