Huawei announces MoU with Thai government and $81 million investment in Southeast Asia

Huawei Technologies (Thailand) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA) and National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) at the fourth Huawei Asia-Pacific Innovation Day in Bangkok recently.

The MoU outlines a series of joint research and innovation objectives aimed at stimulating Thailand’s digital transformation process and bringing Thai innovation to the global market.

Specific initiatives include: Developing deeper technological insights to advance the Thailand 4.0 agenda; Strengthening communications and coordination throughout the innovation and planning processes, and enhancing collaboration in existing areas of cooperation; Fostering a startup-friendly ecosystem in Thailand; Promoting public-private collaboration and cultivating talent through Huawei’s OpenLab and Customer Solution Innovation & Integration Experience Center (CSIC); Facilitating communication between scientists, scholars, innovators, and other researchers; and Conducting research into ICT basic theories.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, and Huawei Rotating Chairman, Mr. Guo Ping, witnessed the signing of this strategic MoU together.

James Wu, President of Huawei’s Southeast Asia Region, unveils that Huawei’s Developer Enablement Plan for the region aims to support digital economy and ecosystem building in the region.

Over the next three years, Huawei will invest US$81 million in building OpenLabs, enabling cloud developers, and cultivating ICT talent in the Southeast Asia region.

“Huawei aims to empower developers and young talent in Southeast Asia. We have over 30 years of ICT capabilities and experience. Through APIs and development platforms, we will open up our capabilities to our dev partners in the region. It’s a huge opportunity for developers to create targeted solutions for industry digitization and grow their own businesses. Working together, we can dream bigger and fly higher,” said Wu.

He added that Huawei will officially open an OpenLab in Delhi in August this year. This OpenLab, along with the one in Bangkok, will serve as open innovation platforms where Huawei joins forces with local partners to develop industry solutions for the region.

Mr. Wu also announced the 2018 Huawei Developer Challenge, which will officially go live on June 11. Huawei will hold a special competition in Southeast Asia to provide guidance to local developers. In addition, Huawei will sponsor developers who innovate on Huawei Cloud, and will present an award up to US$150,000 to developers who meet established requirements.