Huawei continues its strong support for promoting Thailand’s digital transformation through business expansion with its first Digital Power business in Thailand, continued investment in 5G, cloud and local digital talent development. Huawei will reinforce its commitment to empowering the country, a key strategic market, to become ASEAN’s digital hub and carbon neutrality leader, to fulfill the mission of ‘Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand’.
In the ‘HUAWEI – Meet the Press’ virtual press event, Mr. Jay Chen, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific talked about global technological trends for the age of the ‘new normal’: “The last couple of years have been challenging for all of us. But in our combat with the pandemic, all countries begin to see the growing dependence on digital technologies. According to the latest Global Connectivity Index, countries better positioned with ICT will suffer less social and economic impact from the pandemic and will achieve faster recovery. Take Thailand for example, the pandemic has shown that its previous strong investment in ICT infrastructure and digital technologies play a critical role in restoring resilience during crisis.”
He reiterated Huawei’s commitment to supporting Asia Pacific countries’ digital transformation, and further emphasized that in the region, Thailand has gradually emerged as the digital hub for ASEAN from several aspects. Firstly, at the national level, Thailand has developed the Digital Economy and Society Development Plan, aiming to develop digital economy growth and achieve the visionary Thailand 4.0. Secondly, based on the Speedtest Global Index 2020, Thailand ranked first among 176 countries in terms of fixed broadband Internet speeds. It has now become the forerunner in 5G infrastructure construction. Thirdly, Thailand is one of the ASEAN leading countries to integrate 5G technologies in agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and build digital ecosystem. Furthermore, Thailand has shown rapid progress in cultivating digital talents. In this process, Huawei has contributed through programs such as Huawei ASEAN Academy. In the next five years, Huawei ASEAN Academy aim to train more than 300 thousand local talents in total, with nearly one third of contributions coming from Thailand.
Mr. Abel Deng, CEO, of Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd revealed the support for Thai market saying that “Huawei Technologies (Thailand) has a long-term mission in social value contributions for Thailand and the company is committed to continuously contribute to the country, as well as to supporting Thai people and businesses. The contributions span over three areas, namely, Huawei’s support to fight against COVID-19, digital talents ecosystem cultivation and SMEs and Startups ecosystem support.
Since the early COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand, Huawei has been closely working with Thai hospitals and partners to present AI-Assisted services to Ramathibodi and Siriraj Hospitals which helped speed up COVID-19 diagnosis results, to as quick as 25 seconds per case. Also, collaborating with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to pioneer the use of unmanned vehicle in Siriraj Hospital to bring about contactless delivery solution of medical supplies. After the third pandemic wave in May 2021, Huawei delivered 5G telemedicine, InPatient area Intelligent Management, and eLTE broadband trunking, worth more than 6 million THB, to the Bang Khun Thien field hospital. The company also worked with the Digital Council of Thailand (DCT) to provide Cloud solution to Thammasat Field Hospital.
As Huawei believes the key to drive digital development lies in an upskilled talent foundation, we have been proactively enabling Thailand 4.0 through digital talent cultivation. Since 2019, we have invested approximately 180M THB, to launch Huawei ASEAN Academy to empower Thailand’s digital talent development. Within 2 years, we have trained around 16,500 people through this program. For SMEs and Startups support, we have been collaborating with industry key stakeholders, such as the New Economy Academy under the Ministry of Commerce, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), the National Innovation Agency (NIA), local customers and partners to provide new technology, global knowledge and training programs from Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand). The collaboration aimed at increasing understanding of the technology and helping them adapt new technology into their business plan.
“Thailand is a strategic market for Huawei. In order to empower Thailand to become the ASEAN Digital Hub and achieve the country’s goal of leading ASEAN in carbon neutrality, we will continuously invest in four domains: 5G, data center & cloud, digital power, and talent development.” he added.
Mr. Deng also stated that as a Leading-Technology and Global Practice on Digital Power, the Huawei technology has been utilized in 170+ countries and regions. Since becoming a separate business unit within Huawei, the digital power business has expanded rapidly, yet steadily, with industry-leading output and market share. In Prefabricated Modular Data Center, Smart PV and Site Power Facility business, Huawei has gained a leadership position within the sector with the largest global market share. For mPower business, Huawei was the world’s first company to innovate new technology called X-in-1 ePowertrain, to raise the energy efficiency of electric vehicles. Moreover, for Modular Power, Huawei has supplied over 300 million high-efficiency Modular Power units globally. In 2020, Huawei’s sale revenue from the digital power business globally reached 5.5 billion USD and served one third of the world’s population.
This year, Huawei has established its Digital Power business in Thailand. There are now more than 1,000 enterprise customers in the Thai market, 35 of 50 selected Huawei as their digital power partner. The company is now continuously serving more than 50 local partners with services, integration, and solutions. With this establishment, we create more than 1,000 local indirect job opportunities in the country. With highly efficient local team and partners, Huawei expects that leading-technology and global practice adoption will be able to support Thailand toward becoming the ASEAN carbon neutral leader.
“In terms of 5G, with the great support and motivation of Thailand’s operators, we have witnessed that Thailand is the leader in term of 5G network rollout progress compared to the other countries in the region. However, by the end of this year, most of the countries will be catching up. That is why the country needs to have the fastest 5G adoption rate as 5G will help create new economy value including new job opportunities as well as increase the digital economy’ share of GDP. Huawei continues supporting Thailand through ongoing investment in 5G innovation and local ecosystem.
Huawei Thailand has invested 475 million THB for 5G EIC in order to help develop and innovate 5G use case for various industries, create new business models, and upskill for startups and SMEs. The company is also working together with partners to arrange the first 5G Summit in Thailand this year to support the 5G industry and ecosystem in the country. The event will help accelerate digital transformation with 5G in many verticals. With support of DEPA, we will work with ecosystem partners in leading industry sector to initiate 5G alliance in order to build a healthy 5G industry application & innovation ecosystem in Thailand.
Importantly, Huawei will continue to boost the ecosystem to build leading 5G City with high standard 5G network infrastructure to strengthen 5G applications and innovation that will bring new business services and value. This will also push Thailand to become an ASEAN 5G country, also aligning with Thailand’s role as a host for the APEC 2022 Summit, to be held in Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.” Mr. Deng added.
“For cloud, Huawei has given priority to our cloud development, we are confident regarding our investment of 700 million THB for the third local data center in Thailand this year. And that makes HUAWEI CLOUD the first and currently the only global cloud service provider with three data centers in Thailand, also creating more than 200 direct job opportunities with 200 local partners. Thailand has great potential to become a preferred destination for international corporations looking to establish their data centers in this region,” Mr. Deng said.
Huawei’s strong belief is that the key to driving digital development is an upskilled talent foundation. The company has been proactively enabling Thailand 4.0 through digital talent cultivation and will continue to align the workforce gaps and enrich digital talents in Thailand. This is the reason why the company has set up human capital development programs through the Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand), with the aim to train a total of 100,000 digital talented people within five years.
“Positively, technology will play a crucial role in connecting everyone together and providing new opportunities. As a leading ICT partner for digital transformation, as well as continuous social value contributor in Thailand for more than 22 years, we will continuously push forward digital transformation in Thailand, and bring digital technology to every person, home, and organization for a fully connected, intelligent Thailand so that the country can recover quickly. With the mission of ‘Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand’, Huawei will reinforce its commitment to helping the country move toward becoming ASEAN’s digital hub and a carbon neutral leader.” Mr. Abel added.
Source: Carl Byoir & Associates