Four Bangladeshi students will compete in Huawei's Seeds For The Future Asia Pacific final round. The students are Shadmin Sultana from Dhaka University, Mohsina Taz from Brac University, and Wasifa Rahman Rashmi and Md Sumit Hasan from IUT Bangladesh. They were picked from a group of eight participants who participated in the Thailand round of the competition. Read: Bangladesh to host FAO Asia Pacific Regional Conference in 2022 Among the 24 teams that participated in the Thailand round, Bangladesh's Team Ether ranked third with their presentation and qualified for the final round "Tech4Good Accelerator Camp" – to be held in Singapore.  In July, Seeds for the Future 2022 Bangladesh ended with nine winners, who left the country on August 18 to participate in the Thailand round. Seeds for the Future has been designed to seek, nurture and upskill global talents to help them secure a bright future for themselves as well as make a further contribution to their national digitalisation progress, Jason Lizongsheng, a board member of Huawei Technologies Bangladesh, said. Read Huawei launches its largest-ever regional Seeds for the Future Program

Participants at the recent Huawei Asia-Pacific Railway Forum 2021 – "Smart Rail, Better Future Mobility" – explored the innovations to achieve operational efficiency for urban mass transit systems, particularly through driverless operations and workflow management. The event attracted more than 1,300 railway industry customers, partners, experts, and media from across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. READ: Huawei, partners release 5G White Paper Core Huawei railway industry customers and partners – including the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Limited, and professional services firm Arup Group Limited – participated in a panel discussion, sharing their experiences on the importance of achieving operational efficiency for urban mass transit systems, particularly through driverless operations and workflow management. Aaron Wang, Senior Vice-President of Huawei APAC Enterprise Business Group, addressed the challenges unfolded by the pandemic, noting that such challenges have also been converted into opportunities for all industries. READ: Huawei donates digital equipment to unprivileged children of Obhizatrik School "As a global ICT solution provider, Huawei helps customers such as Singapore's Land Transport Authority, Hong Kong MTR, Turkey TCDD, and Germany's Deutsche Bahn to accelerate their digitalisation by integrating new technologies with traditional infrastructure," Aaron added.

Huawei Cloud recently announced its plans, including cloud collaboration and innovation programme to supercharge startup growth at the Asia-Pacific Spark Founders Summit held simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong. The Chinese telecom giant will take four initiatives to that end. The first initiative involves joint outreach by Huawei Cloud and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). Read: Huawei partners to build 5G automobile ecosphere Huawei will combine Cloud infrastructure with HMS to empower all industries – from media, entertainment, and finance, to the industrial Internet, healthcare, and education. Huawei Cloud and HMS developers and partners will benefit from unified accounts, one-stop development platforms, and one-stop app distribution and marketing. Their second initiative is all about continuous tech innovation. Huawei Cloud's Cloud-Native 2.0 solution helps enterprises build full-stack, agile capabilities by leveraging highly efficient infrastructure and leading cloud-native technologies. Singapore-based startup Nestia, online car marketplace UCARS, and Indonesian express delivery company have benefitted from the solution. Read: Huawei to invest $150 million in talent development The third initiative will help the startups in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) expand their business into the global market. Huawei Cloud operates 45 availability zones in 23 different geographic regions. Also, Huawei Cloud will offer a high-quality business ecosystem. It has built high-quality ecosystems for startups in APAC, covering consulting services, SaaS partners, software partners, as well as governments, and top venture capitals. Read Huawei recognised 2022 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for 3rd straight year "We work with local governments, leading incubators, well-known VCs, and universities, building support platforms for startups across many regions. We launched the Spark Program in APAC last year, with 40 startups joining us so far. We have already helped four of these startups launch new products and completely transform their businesses while helping eight enter new markets." Zhang Ping'an, senior vice-president of Huawei, said.

Huawei recently announced its plan to invest $100 million in startup support at its inaugural Spark Founders Summit, which took place simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong. The investment would go towards Huawei's Spark programme, which aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) over the next three years, according to the Chinese tech giant. Huawei has been helping Singapore build the first startup hub in APAC since 2020 and has expanded the programme to many countries in the region in the past year. Read: Huawei partners to build 5G automobile ecosphere At the summit, Huawei also announced that this programme would focus its efforts on developing four additional startup hubs – in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam – with the overarching aim of recruiting 1,000 startups, out of which 100 are scale-ups, into the Spark accelerator programme. Huawei Senior Vice-President and Board Member Catherine Chen said, "We all know how brilliant startups and SMEs are. They are the innovators, disruptors, and pioneers of our times. These companies account for two-thirds of jobs worldwide, create two-thirds of new jobs, and generate almost 50% of global GDP. And 34 years ago, Huawei was a startup with just $5,000 of registered capital." Read: Huawei to invest $150 million in talent development "In Asia Pacific, for the Asia Pacific has been our unchanged commitment for the past two decades," said Jeffery Liu, president of Huawei Asia Pacific. "Leveraging Huawei's global customer base and full-stack technologies, the Spark Program will invest over $100 million in the next three years, and provide comprehensive support to build a sustainable startup ecosystem and create new value for the dynamic region."

Participants at the recently held webinar "Accelerate Digital Economy for Inclusive Integration in the Asia Pacific – Connecting Digital Industries in Pandemic" called for leveraging digital opportunities to build an inclusive ecosystem and promoting regional integration, which is particularly important while still combating the pandemic. A digital economy is increasingly perceived as the way to overcome disruptions caused by Covid-19. Representatives and thought leaders from government, industry and academic sectors across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) joined the virtual conversation organised by Huawei to explore the multiple facets of the digital economy. Read: Huawei wants to empower ASEAN's green development Ambassador of Indonesia to China Djauhari Oratmangun said, "The digital transformation has been significantly accelerated during the pandemic, speeding up business changes." Based on digital knowledge and infrastructure, the digital economy has powered a growing proportion of regional GDP and boosted resilience amid the pandemic. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) predicts the digital economy will contribute $1 trillion to regional GDP by year. Read: Huawei to invest $150 million in talent development Countries from the region have released future-oriented roadmaps on removing trade barriers, improving digital coverage and ensuring ubiquitous access to digital services to facilitate the implementation of the digital economy. "The development of the digital economy ecosystem is a process that involves active participation of multiple stakeholders including those from the private sectors," said Dr Le Quang Lan, assistant director for ICT and Tourism Division at ASEAN Secretariat, when referring to enabling a digital economy ecosystem to accelerate social recovery and regional integration. Dr Tan Khee Giap, chairman of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation, said: "Digitalisation is not just about technological progress, but quality empowerment of digitalisation to the public at large is paramount if inclusive integration is to be achieved. The role of the government is providing digital capability as a public good, it can be complemented by private sector ICT companies." Read Huawei Bangladesh gets Pioneer 5G Partner Award Professor Jose Decolongon, COO and managing director of Corporate Foresight, Embiggen Consulting Philippines said: "Micro, small, medium enterprises need to have an understanding of digitalisation to perceive the opportunities when it comes to exploring the digital side of the business."

Cross-sector collaboration is needed to lower the costs of rural area connectivity and improve digital literacy to close the digital divide and drive economic recovery during the pandemic, experts said at a webinar recently. The Financial Times and Huawei organised the event "Strategies for Addressing the Asia-Pacific Digital Divide – Increasing Connectivity to Drive Economic Recovery." Read Huawei to invest $150 million in talent development The Asia Pacific is speeding up for digital transformation and underpinned by dynamic markets and a young population. The significant rift of digital access yet hinders wider shares of digital benefits, which in turn leads to slower recovery from the pandemic. ICT leverages fundamental ways to drive economic rebound. "This starts with fair access to digital services specifically on connecting the unconnected," said Michael Macdonald, the chief digital officer of Huawei Asia Pacific. Read Mobile World Congress 2021: Huawei wins 5 awards The ICT talent shortage is one of the key fields revealing the digital divide. Poon King Wang, director of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design, called for long-term strategies and sustained support to upskill people across generations and ensure the wellbeing of workers in digital transformation. In 2017, Huawei, the ICT Division of Bangladesh, and Robi Axiata jointly launched the Digital Training Bus project to bring digital skills to women in the heart of rural Bangladesh. More than 60,000 women have received training till now, and 160,000 more will benefit from it by 2023. Read Huawei launches new 5G products To lessen the imminent labour deficit in APAC, 400,000 more people are expected to be digitally upskilled in the next five years through Huawei educational flagship programs such as Seeds for the Future and ASEAN Academy, according to Michael MacDonald.