New digital initiative set to benefit 500 million people

New digital initiative set to benefit 500 million people
Ken Hu, deputy chairman of Huawei Technologies Co, delivers a keynote address at MWC19 held in Barcelona, Spain.
Ken Hu, deputy chairman of Huawei Technologies Co, delivers a keynote address at MWC19 held in Barcelona, Spain.
Published 26 February 2019
Khine Kyaw Myanmar Eleven Barcelona

 

Provided that more than 3.8 billion people are offline and one billion people have to live without mobile broadband coverage, a new digital inclusion drive was recently brought to life by Huawei Technologies Co during the MWC19 held in the capital of Catalonia, according to Ken Hu, the firm’s deputy chairman.

Hu said on Monday the new initiative entitled Tech4All would help 500 million additional people around the world benefit directly from digital technology over the next five years. It is designed to promote digital inclusion for both individuals and organisations by focusing efforts on connectivity, applications and skills.

“We will empower the ecosystem, providing developers and SMEs with easy-to-use development platforms. This will help them create more specialised applications for different communities and industries,” he said.

He urged governments, industry organisations and business partners to act together to promote digital inclusion for all, while much of the telecommunications industry is focused on next generation technology like the fifth generation of wireless technology (5G) and artificial intelligence (AI).

“We cannot forget that there are still many people excluded from the digital world. We need to expand the definition of digital inclusion beyond connectivity to include applications and skills,” he said.

“We cannot just think people. By expanding our definition of digital inclusion, we can help more people and organisations directly benefit from digital technology.”

In a bid to create practical value for more communities and industries, the Chinese giant has invested nearly US$1 billion in its Huawei Developer Programme, which is designed to promote open source capabilities in the industry, provide development platforms and tools, train developers, incubate great ideas, and fund innovation.

To date, more than 800,000 developers have registered for the programme. Moving forward, Huawei will increase its investment in the ecosystem, focusing on enabling AI development and training one million AI developers over the next three years.

“Technology is good, and it should be used for good too. This is just the beginning. We hope that more people will join us to amplify these efforts,” he said.

He urged to work more closely with governments, local communities and other industries to enhance the digital skills of individuals and society at large.

“Connectivity is the bedrock of digital inclusion. We will keep on innovating to lower the barriers to connectivity, including cost and coverage,” said Hu.