Huawei explores means to continue to help Nepal go digital

KATHMANDU -- Huawei has been making efforts to advance digital development across a wide range of industries in Nepal.

The Chinese tech giant shared what it is doing during Huawei Connect 2022 held on Tuesday in Kathmandu, its annual flagship event for the global information and communications technology industry that drew together over 400 sector leaders, experts and partners.

Nicholas Ma, president of Huawei Asia Pacific Enterprise Business Group, outlined three ways that Huawei and its eco-partners can support Nepal in digital economy, namely digital infrastructure, industrial applications and digital talents.

"Nepal has made notable progress under the Digital Nepal Framework, Huawei will continue to leverage its global and regional innovation capabilities to support Nepal with cloud and data center infrastructure in addition to accessible, affordable and inclusive digital connectivity, accelerating the digital transformation for different vertical industry and building local ICT ecosystem in Nepal," Ma said at the event held under the theme of "Unleash Digital."

The Nepali government launched the Digital Nepal Framework to highlight the importance of transforming Nepal into a digital economy, said Purushottam Khanal, chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority.

"This Huawei Connect congress will play a significant role in this regard by introducing future tech trends and solutions before us," he added.

Huawei Connect was conducted in Nepal for the third time with a view to exploring the means to unleash digital productivity more effectively, promote the digital economy and build up stronger digital ecosystems in Nepal.

"Our objective is to develop and expand the information and communications sector up to the rural level in the form of infrastructure for social and economic development through widespread participation of the private sector as well with the emphasis on the dissemination of information and communications technology," said Baikuntha Aryal, secretary of Nepal's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

"We must ensure that our country and citizens are not left behind in terms of ICT," he added, thanking Huawei for hosting such an event "where we can get many new knowledge and ideas to unleash digital in Nepal."

Xie Yu, economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Nepal, said that as Huawei is one of the most innovative tech companies and is leading the ICT industry in the world, he is sure "Huawei Connect will literally connect many things and unleash a digital Nepal."

Nepal has a great potential in terms of national digital transformation and going digital is the right choice, noted William Zhang, CEO of Huawei Nepal.

"We will keep supporting Nepal's digitalization and sustainable development efforts and building out the industry ecosystem," he said.

Joining a panel discussion at the event, Huawei's partners shared their ideas on how to build next-generation data centers so as to unleash digital in Nepal.