Huawei eyes young workforce as key to green innovation – BusinessWorld Online

By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter

CHINESE multinational technology company Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., will continue investing in green innovation to support digital growth in the Asia Pacific. 

Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said at the May 19 opening of the Huawei APAC Digital Innovation Congress 2022 that the company invested 22% of $99.9 billion (its total revenue in 2021) in research and development for green technologies. 

“Moving forward, we will keep investing heavily in innovation to help our partners in the region meet their strategic development goals,” he said. 

In 2020, Huawei’s ecological acoustic monitoring system — called Guardian — was rolled out in Palawan, Philippines, where forest rangers were able to receive real-time alerts of rainforest destruction on a mobile app.  

“The possibilities are endless, and I am sure that each industry will be able to figure out where and how they can get help from digital technology to meet their specific needs,” Mr. Hu said.

He added that APAC’s young workforce can be tapped to accelerate green digital development. “Compared to other regions, this workforce will be relatively young. This is an important advantage, and we should invest more in the next generation of digital talent,” he said. 

Yang Mee Eng, executive director of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foundation, said at the event that a strong information and communications technology (ICT) talent team can achieve an inclusive and resilient digital APAC. 

“Technological disruption greatly affected the ASEAN workforce,” she said. “We must train the workforce to be able to fully utilize digital tools.” 

Huawei, in partnership with ASEAN Foundation, announced in August 2021 that it would invest $100 million in the Spark startup ecosystem and provide digital training to 500,000 talents in the region within the next five years. 

In the Philippines, the company’s program Seeds for the Future benefited over 200 students over the last seven years while its ICT Academy has been rolled out in more than 60 partner universities in the Philippines, covering over 13,000 students.