The COVID 19 crisis has provided us another opportunity to witness how technologyplays a crucial role in ourlife. Although Egypt's government have ordered most of workers and students to stay home, millions have carried on working almost normally, universities have resumed their curriculum throughonlinecourses, and most of people were able to stay in touch with their friends and relatives by a single touch The society digitalization is only a beginning.Cloud computing, internet of things “IoT”, 5G, and other emerging technologies will preciously change our daily lives in ways that are profound and fairlyincredible at this point. It's critical to ensure that Egypt is well positioned to take full advantage of these emerging technologies.The best way to make surethis happens is by equipping the country's youth with the basic skills they will need.At Huawei, we always consider a special responsibility to help Egypt achieve this goal. Our ambition coincides with the vision of his Excellency President Sisi to transform Egypt into a global digital hub. Huawei launched in 2019 in Egypt its exclusive ICT Talent Bank program. Planned to last until 2023, currently the program is operated in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research as well as the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. Egypt's ICT Talent Bank programbecome so prosperous within Huawei, it has become a model for our operations in other parts of the world. We initially named the program ICT Talent Pool. But we changed the word Pool to Bank to better reflect that technical talent is the most valuable resource in the ICT industry. The goal of the program in Egypt is to provide marketable ICT skills to 12,000 youths by the end of 2023. Teaching will be delivered by 200 certified instructors. By the end of the program, we aim to have established 100 ICT academies in Egypt. Huawei ICT Academy is a global program of Huawei, however the number 100 in a single country is unprecedentedoutside China. Typically set up in colleges or universities, our ICT Academies provide quality courses that train teachers and familiarizestudents with cutting-edge ICT technologies like 5G and AI to students worldwide. Our Egypt initiative is pointing toward a remarkable start. So far this year, we have signed a great MOU with the National Telecommunication Institute (NTI) to set up in Cairo the first Huawei ICT Academy outside China which is focally responsiblefor instructors trainingand certifications. Expectedly, by the end of this year, ourtarget having established 60 new Huawei ICT Academies in Egypt, completion of150 instructors training, graduation of 1,650 youths, and identification of 600 young people showing particular talent. The latter may be offered internships at Huawei or other leading firms. The enthusiasm of Egypt's youth for Huawei and for technology is heartwarming. This year, 23,000 have registered to take part in Huawei ICT Competition, the highest number of entries in the world. Last year, when hundreds of youths from all over the world congregated at our Shenzhen headquarters for the annual Huawei ICT Competition Global Final, the Egyptian team came in second place! Egypt is very special to Huawei. As a major supplier of 4G equipment to all four of the country's telecom operators, Huawei is Egypt's largest supplier of ICT solutions.And Egypt serves as our regional service and technical support hub for Arabic-speaking countries in Middle East and Africa. In Egypt, we operate five service and tech centers and employ hundreds of tech-literate Egyptians. We hope that ICT Talent Bank will help Egypt to provide its youths with useful technical skills. In fact, I am confident that Egypt will succeed in becoming a talent hub for the whole MENA region. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes “Studying is like a boat sailing against the current: you must always forge ahead or you will be swept downstream.” The right training will enable Egypt's youths to swim with the technological current that is sweeping the world. Vincent Sun is CEO of Huawei Egypt.
