Huawei Middle East Innovation Day 2019 reaffirms digital as the driving force behind today’s economy

Dubai: During its fourth annual Middle East Innovation Day, Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, explored how new partnerships in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 5G are now scaling digital services to more people, homes, and organizations than ever before.

The event was held on the second day of GITEX Technology Week at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

Huawei Innovation Day incorporated three bespoke sessions: a 5G Ecosystem Conference under the title “5G, Gear Up”; an AI Conference under the theme “Advance Intelligence”, and a “Huawei Developer Day Dubai 2019” session, which focused on building a better ecosystem for Huawei partners and developers.

Huawei Innovation Day was attended by Jawad Abbasi, Head of MENA, GSMA, and Huawei’s distinguish customers from more than 20 telecom operators in middle east, and industry partners among other industry leaders, the total attendance exceeded 300.

Involving regulators, telecom operators, industry partners, analysts, and other ecosystem players, the conference reviewed global 5G case studies and explored how 5G is bringing infinite possibilities not only to individuals but to vertical industries across the Middle East. To date, Huawei has secured more than 50 commercial 5G contracts while shipping more than 200,000 base stations worldwide.

Anjian, president of Carrier Networks Business Group, Huawei Middle East, noted: “Since 2009, Huawei has invested 4 billion USD in 5G research. We are not only providing the best 5G network, but also willing to explore 5G business success with our customers and partners. To reach customer-oriented business success, we are committed to increasing investment in three major areas: 1. Continuous investment in 5G technology capability, which adapts to customers' business requirements, and brings infinite possibilities not only for person but also for industries. 2. In terms of business development and 5G use case exploration, we will persistent invest human and financial resources in business development to provide more 5G use case solutions going to market with our customers; 3. Further developing the 5G ecosystem platform, today we will announce Huawei middle east OpenLab establishment, to work with our customers and partners to ensure the delivery of the best possible solutions that contribute to business growth and success for them. We will keep expanding and enhancing our collaborative partnership in the Middle East to cultivate a strong and inclusive 5G ecosystem in its journey to building a fully connected intelligent Middle East.”

During the AI Conference, “Advance Intelligence”, a deep-dive session explored how local enterprises and governments are embracing AI as a key enabling technology for advanced intelligence. That transformation will be facilitated by Huawei’s next-generation intelligent product strategy and new +AI products for the enterprise market. By adding AI capabilities to the next-generation of ICT products, from Wi-Fi 6 to All-Flash Storage, Huawei will help customers address a new round of digital transformation challenges to achieve business success.

At the event, Huawei announced the launch of three new products within its enterprise portfolio: next-generation, all-flash storage product OceanStor Dorado; AI-native database GaussDB, and the highest-performance distributed storage yet, FusionStorage 8.0.

Alaa ElShimy, managing director and Vice President, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, added: “The increasing scale of intelligent technologies are bringing disruptive changes to enterprises across the Middle East. With the rapid development of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, a diverse range of applications and massive amounts of data are being generated, which pose demanding requirements on real-time data processing. Data infrastructures must be upgraded to fulfill these demands. We believe that AI will promote innovation across the region and will change the way entire industries are run.”

At the HUAWEI Developers Day section, HUAWEI introduced the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) Ecosystem based on the core framework of HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS Core and Capabilities) and Developer Services. To date, HMS Core has opened up 14 capabilities to help developers build high-quality applications at low cost and quickly, and continuously improve the app user volume and activity.

Shining-Star Program had been announced, investing 1 billion USD to support global developer to keep contributing in HMS ecosystem construction. Also, the first DigiX Innovation Studio will further expand throughout the globe, with eight DigiX Labs in six main regions including Dubai, providing great supports to global developer’s innovation, including device testing, experience of capability development and tool etc.

“We sincerely invite all local partners to join our ecosystem construction, that’s why we had invested 1 billion USD in Shining-Star Program and building the first DigiX innovation labs in Dubai to fully support them,” said Adam Ersong Xiao, Managing Director of MENA Mobile Services, HUAWEI Consumer Business Group.

The Innovation Day comes at a time when both the public and private sectors are making critical investments in ICT infrastructure. Digital innovation is now at the forefront of many national development plans in the Middle East, and is seen as a crucial ingredient to diversifying local economies, creating future jobs, while accelerating sustainable development.

The combination of 5G connectivity and AI will be particularly powerful as it enables more people, things, and devices to share advanced intelligence than ever before. According to Huawei’s recent Global Industry Vision (GIV) report, the company predicts that nearly 60% of the world's population will have access to 5G by the end of 2025, and 97% of large companies will have deployed AI as applications.

It is reported that AI will contribute US$320 billion to the Middle East economy by 2030, which indicates the large impact AI will have on the region with the governments’ support and implementation. The countries expected to gain the most in their GDP from AI by 2030 are the UAE with 14%, in which AI will contribute to their GDP the most are: the UAE at 14% increase, followed by KSA at 12.4%.

Visitors to GITEX Technology Week can continue to explore Huawei’s latest solutions and global case studies at its exhibition stand located at Stand Z2-A10 in Za’abeel Hall 2 under the theme “Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World”.

Huawei’s participation at GITEX 2019 is supported by some of its key partners including GAPP and Redington as Diamond sponsors; Enterprise Systems and Octalpha as Gold sponsors.