Huawei has opened this year’s edition of Huawei Connect in Bangkok, Thailand, its 7th annual flagship event for the global ICT industry.
Under the theme, “Unleash Digital,” the conference is bringing together 10,000 ICT industry leaders, experts, and partners from across the globe to explore opportunities and the most up-to-date solutions to unleash digital productivity, promote the digital economy, and build up stronger digital ecosystems.
During the gathering, Huawei discussed the latest initiatives it's taking to advance digital development across a wide range of industries. It has also unveiled 15+ innovative cloud services for the global market.
Kicking off the event was a keynote speech from Huawei's Rotating Chairman, Ken Hu, who outlined three ways the ICT ecosystem can help break through common barriers in digital transformation.
First, Hu stressed the importance of boosting digital infrastructure, including more robust connectivity and stronger, more diverse computing resources.
Another initiative is to help organizations go beyond simple cloud adoption and truly make the most of cloud, focusing on advanced technology services that drive leapfrog development.
And he added that it is also vital to build out local digital ecosystems, including partner development, strengthening the digital talent pool, and providing more support for SMEs.
Despite an unstable growth in GDP over the last two years, Hu said that the digital economy has been increasing on a global scale, standing at over 15% in 2021. The improvement in the digital economy has led many organizations to transform their operations and service offerings with next-generation digital technology.
"Going digital is clearly the right choice," said Hu. "The demand is there, and so are the technologies. The world is unleashing digital productivity, and it's happening right now."
Ken Hu, Rotating Chairman at Huawei, speaking at HUAWEI CONNECT 2022
New Huawei Cloud Region in Indonesia, and 15+ new services
The Huawei Connect event also introduced the latest Huawei Cloud Regions in Indonesia and Ireland, as well as of 15+ new advanced services.
During the conference, Zhang Ping'an, the CEO of Huawei Cloud, said that by the end of 2022, Huawei Cloud will operate 75 availability zones in 29 regions around the world, boosting services for more than 170 countries and regions.
Among the highlights of this event is the launch of “Go Cloud, Go Global” ecosystem plan. Huawei Cloud and its partners presented the plan, which is designed to accelerate the development of a global digital industry ecosystem for collaborative innovation and shared success.
Huawei Cloud is also focusing on Everything as a Service to strengthen its commitment to establishing the industry-leading platform for innovations on the cloud.
As part of these efforts, Jacqueline Shi, President of Huawei Cloud's Global Marketing and Sales Service, announced the global launch of 15+ new advanced services. These are Huawei Cloud CCE Turbo, Ubiquitous Cloud Native Service (UCS), Pangu wave model, DataArts LakeFormation, Virtual Live, CodeCheck and CloudTest, KooMessage, KooSearch, and KooGallery.
Building out local ecosystems for shared success
With the presence of key industry leaders and government representatives from the Asia Pacific region, Huawei also emphasized its commitment to open collaboration and shared success. The company urged both the public and private sectors to work more closely together to promote local digital ecosystems that build up innovation partners, strengthen the talent pool, and support startups.
In his speech, Simon Lin, the President of Huawei Asia-Pacific Region, released the “Digital First Economy” whitepaper that delves into targeted policy suggestions for digital infrastructure construction and digital economy development in the Asia-Pacific region.
"The Asia-Pacific region is standing at the forefront of the global digital landscape," said Lin. "Huawei is committed to becoming a key contributor to the digital economy in the region. We will keep supporting its digitalization and sustainable development efforts, and building out the industry ecosystem."
Government representatives from the region graced the event to share the progress they have made with advancing digital economy development in their respective countries. These include H.E. Supattanapong Punmeechaow, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy; H.E. Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, Minister of Digital Economy and Society of the Kingdom of Thailand; H.E. Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia; H.E. Muhammad Abdul Mannan, Planning Minister of Bangladesh; H.E. David Almirol, Undersecretary of E-Government, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Philippines; and Dr. Yang Mee Eng, Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation.
The three-day conference in Bangkok is the first stop on HUAWEI CONNECT's global tour in 2022. Featuring two keynote sessions, six summits, as well as multiple breakout sessions and demos, this year's event dives into the challenges that governments and enterprises face at all stages of their digital transformation journey, Huawei's advancements in digital infrastructure, as well as the company's latest cloud services and ecosystem partner solutions.