Vientiane, July 19 (Xinhua/UNB) -- Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies is continuing to carry out its Seeds for the Future program in Laos, offering 10 more Lao students opportunities to learn latest ICT technologies in China.

The program aims to facilitate the transfer of ICT (information and communication technology) knowledge, thus assisting Laos to be a digitally empowered nation, the company's Lao branch CEO Wang Qi told Xinhua on Friday.

Initiated by Huawei in 2008, the Seeds for the Future program seeks to develop local ICT talent, enhance knowledge transfer, promote greater understanding of and interest in the telecommunications sector, and improve and encourage regional building and participation in the digital community.

Wang said at the company's program launching ceremony on Wednesday that ICT has become an important growth engine for many different industries. As a global ICT leader, Huawei is committed to promoting ICT industry development in the countries in which it operates, and aims to drive long-term economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Lao Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Phouth Simmalavong highly appreciated Huawei's commitment to improving Lao ICT development levels and cultivating talents in related fields.

Local daily Vientiane Times on Friday quoted the deputy minister as saying that "Huawei is the ICT industry leader in the world and the company has developed rapidly in the last few years."

"I believe the ICT industry will play a very important role in the Lao economy. Seeds for the Future is an excellent project which provides a good opportunity for Lao students to study new ICT technologies at Huawei. I hope you (the students) can broaden your knowledge and contribute to our country in the future," the Lao official said at the ceremony.

Rome, July 16 (Xinhua/UNB) -- Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies will invest 3.1 billion U.S. dollars over the next three years in Italy, local media reported on Monday.

Addressing the press on the sidelines of an exhibition in Milan, Huawei's Italian unit chief executive Thomas Miao said the investment plan would allow 1,000 new direct jobs in the period 2019-2021, according to Ansa news agency.

More specifically, the plan would consist of some 1.2 billion U.S. dollars invested in operations and marketing, and 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in direct supplies, while 52 million U.S. dollars would be added for research and development activities, Ansa also said.

Speaking to reporters, Miao stressed the solidity of Sino-Italian commercial ties.

"They are two well-paired countries: Italy needs China, and vice versa, and I am very optimistic from a business point of view," state broadcaster RAI News24 cited him as saying.

The country CEO also urged Italy to make a "transparent, efficient, and fair" use of its golden power on the development of 5G networks.

On Friday, in fact, the Italian government passed a decree boosting the so-called "golden power" legislation, and increasing the power of the state to intervene in the private sector of ICT infrastructure networks -- including 5G -- due to "urgent need to strengthen national security in strategic sectors".

Under the new decree -- which needs approval by parliament within 60 days -- Italian public and private companies must now inform the government of any purchase of 5G technologies from non-European suppliers.

Huawei-Italy's CEO called for the new rules to be fair "for all suppliers", and not applied to extra-European providers only.

"The 5G technology is very important," RAI cited Miao as saying.

The CEO added the new 5G golden power rules should be neutral and "apply to all, in order to be sure that -- from the first day -- we have a safe and reliable infrastructure, since the country needs to be ready before the roll-out".

Operating in the country since 2004, Huawei now employs some 850 people in Italy, and has inaugurated its new headquarters in Milan earlier this year.

In its 15-year activity, it has opened four innovations centers in cooperation with Italian ICT operators and a Joint Innovation Center for Smart & Safe City in cooperation with the regional government of Sardinia and its Center for Advanced Studies, Research, and Development (CRS4).

Huawei is the largest of five global companies currently selling 5G equipment and systems, the others being Chinese ZTE, Finnish Nokia, Swedish Ericsson, and South Korean's Samsung.

Kuwait City, July 12 (Xinhua/UNB) -- Chinese technology and smartphone giant Huawei unveiled its first 5G-enabled smartphone HUAWEI Mate 20 X on Thursday to Kuwaiti consumers.

At the launch event held in the Avenues Mall in Farwaniya Governorate, the largest shopping mall of Kuwait, Jiang Guang'ao, general manager of Consumers BG Kuwait Representative Office, said the HUAWEI Mate 20 X is a revolution in technology and innovation in the world.

"This event enables customers to enjoy the best-in-class performance and best 5G network with ultra-high speed and low latency services," he said.

The Huawei Mate 20 X will be available in Kuwait from July 18.

Haidar Ali, 24, who works in the marketing department of a Kuwaiti communication company, told Xinhua that the new Huawei smartphone that supports 5G has really great features.

"I tried it and it's really great with high-speed service. I recommend people to try it," Ali said.

Fahad Mhawesh, a 29-year-old salesman, said the Mate 20 X is the first high-speed smartphone that reached Kuwait where the 7.2-inch screen is best for gamers and can be used as tablets.

"I came to the event to see the 5G smartphone. It's amazing that it supports the new technology and has the whole package in one place," Mohammad Foad, a 22-year-old student, expressed his excitement.

Shenzhen, Jul 12 (AP/UNB) — The chairman of Huawei said Friday the Chinese tech giant has yet to see any benefit from President Donald Trump's promise to allow U.S. companies to sell some components to the company and called on Washington to remove it from a security blacklist.

The "unjust and unfair" decision to add Huawei Technologies Ltd., the biggest maker of network equipment for phone companies, to a list that restricts exports is hurting its U.S. suppliers and global customers,  Liang Hua told a news conference.

American officials accuse Huawei of facilitating Chinese spying, a charge the company denies, and see it as a growing competitor to U.S. technology industries. Its founder, Ren Zhengfei, said in June the company has cut sales forecasts by $30 billion over the next two years due to curbs on access to U.S. chips and other components.

Trump promised last month to allow some sales to Huawei but said it will stay on the "entity list" until talks over Washington's tariff war with Beijing are concluded.

"So far we haven't seen any tangible change," Liang said.

"We're not saying that just because things have relaxed a little, we're fine with being on the blacklist," he said. "Actually, we believe our listing on the blacklist should be lifted completely."

Despite the U.S. export restrictions, Huawei revenue grew in the first half of this year, Liang said. He declined to give details ahead of the release of financial results later this month.

Trump's export curbs are a blow to U.S. suppliers of chips and other technology for which Huawei is one of the biggest buyers.

Huawei reported earlier last year's sales rose 19.5 percent over 2017 to 721.2 billion ($105.2 billion). The company founder, Ren Zhengfei, said ahead of that he expected sales to rise 30 percent this year, but those plans were derailed by Trump's export curbs.

Liang said Huawei is deciding how to respond to possible loss of access to Google's Android operating system for its mobile phones under Trump's curbs. Huawei, the No. 2 global smartphone brand after Samsung, has developed its own operating system, Hongmeng, but has said so far it has no plans to use it on phones.

"The open Android operating system and ecosystem is still our first choice," said Liang. "Of course, if America doesn't let us use it, then might we in the future develop our own Hongmeng as our cellphone operating system? We still haven't decided yet."

Huawei also is developing its own chips and other technology, which would reduce the amount it spends on U.S. components and help to insulate the company against possible supply disruptions. Huawei announced plans in January for a next-generation smartphone based on its own chips.

Dhaka, Jul 10 (AP/UNB) - Amazon and Microsoft are battling it out over a $10 billion opportunity to build the U.S. military its first "war cloud" computing system. But Amazon's early hopes of a shock-and-awe victory may be slipping away.

Formally called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI, the military's computing project would store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities. The Defense Department hopes to award the winner-take-all contract as soon as August. Oracle and IBM were eliminated at an earlier round of the contract competition.

But that's only if the project isn't derailed first. It faces a legal challenge by Oracle and growing congressional concerns about alleged Pentagon favoritism toward Amazon. Military officials hope to get started soon on what will be a decade-long business partnership they describe as vital to national security.

"This is not your grandfather's internet," said Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a defense-oriented think tank. "You're talking about a cloud where you can go from the Pentagon literally to the soldier on the battlefield carrying classified information."

Amazon was considered an early favorite when the Pentagon began detailing its cloud needs in 2017, but its candidacy has been marred by an Oracle allegation that Amazon executives and the Pentagon have been overly cozy. Oracle has a final chance to make its case against Amazon — and the integrity of the government's bidding process — in a court hearing Wednesday.

"This is really the cloud sweepstakes, which is why there are such fierce lawsuits," said Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives.

Ives said an opportunity that was a "no brainer" for Amazon a year ago now seems just as likely to go to Microsoft, which has spent the past year burnishing its credentials to meet the government's security requirements.

For years, Amazon Web Services has been the industry leader in moving businesses and other institutions onto its cloud — a term used to describe banks of servers in remote data centers that can be accessed from almost anywhere. But Microsoft's Azure cloud platform has been steadily catching up, as have other providers such as Google, in both corporate and government settings.

With an acronym evoking Star Wars and a price tag of up to $10 billion over the next decade, JEDI has attracted more attention than most cloud deals. A cloud strategy document unveiled by the Defense Department last year calls for replacing the military's "disjointed and stove-piped information systems" with a commercial cloud service "that will empower the warfighter with data and is critical to maintaining our military's technological advantage."

In a court filing last month, Lt. Gen. Bradford Shwedo said further delays in the Oracle case will "hamper our critical efforts in AI" as the U.S. tries to maintain its advantage over adversaries who are "weaponizing their use of data." Shwedo said JEDI's computing capabilities could help the U.S. analyze data collected from surveillance aircraft, predict when equipment needs maintenance and speed up communications if fiber and satellite connections go down.

Amazon was considered an early front-runner for the project in part because of its existing high-security cloud contract with the Central Intelligence Agency. It beat out IBM for that deal in 2013.

Worried that the Pentagon's bid seemed tailor-made for Amazon, rivals Oracle and IBM lodged formal protests last year arguing against the decision to award it to a single vendor.

In an October blog post , IBM executive Sam Gordy wrote that a single-cloud approach went against industry trends and "would give bad actors just one target to focus on should they want to undermine the military's IT backbone."

The Government Accountability Office later dismissed those protests, but Oracle persisted by taking its case to the Court of Federal Claims, where it has pointed to emails and other documents that it says show conflicts of interest between Amazon and the government. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Wednesday. The case has delayed the procurement process, though the Pentagon says it hopes to award the contract as early as Aug. 23.

Oracle's argument is centered on the activities of a Defense Department official who later went to work for Amazon. Amazon says Oracle has exaggerated that employee's role in the procurement using "tabloid sensationalism."

Some defense-contracting experts say the conflict allegations are troubling.

"No one seems to deny that these were actual conflicts and the players affirmatively attempted to conceal them," said Steven Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University. "That simply cannot be tolerated."

But Goure, whose think tank gets funding from Amazon but not from its cloud rivals Microsoft, Oracle or IBM, said the criticism is "coming from the also-rans." He says rivals like Oracle "missed the boat" in cloud technology and are trying to make up lost ground through legal maneuvers.

The Pentagon has repeatedly defended its bidding process, though the concerns have trickled into Congress and onto prime-time TV. Fox News host Tucker Carlson devoted a segment last month to the cloud contract that questioned an Amazon executive's 2017 meeting with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Carlson also aired concerns by Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, who said "the allegations are incredible" and should be investigated.

A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday further detailed government emails about that meeting and another one between Mattis and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos later that year. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in an emailed statement Tuesday that there are so many questions that the Pentagon should "restart the whole process" and wait until its inspector general can thoroughly review for potential conflicts.

Amazon said in a statement Tuesday the meetings "had nothing to do with the JEDI procurement" and blamed "misinformed or disappointed competitors" for trying to imply otherwise.

Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith said while military leaders are expected to engage with industry, no one in the defense secretary's "front office" participated in drafting the contract requirements or soliciting bids.

Ives said it remains to be seen how much the conflict allegations will hurt Amazon or help Microsoft. Microsoft has largely stayed quiet during the dispute. In a statement, it focused on highlighting its 40-year partnership supplying the military with services such as email.