By Our Reporter
The Huawei ICT Competition is returning for its 3rd edition. It was launched by the State Minister for Higher Education, Dr. John Chrysestom Muyingo during a ceremony held at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Friday.
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Muyingo lauded Huawei Technologies for working with the government of Uganda to promote the delivery of quality education through ICT.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has presented the sector with profound challenges. Over 15 million learners have been left at home and we have been forced to rethink the delivery of Education for our learners.” Dr. Muyingo noted.
“With the broad experience that Huawei has developed over the years, I am confident that this partnership can help us to find more innovative solutions to these challenges which we are facing. I call upon you to begin exploring the possibilities for delivery of infrastructure that will bring our education sector up to speed with the dynamic changes and resulting challenges that have been presented by the 21st century,” he added.
At the same function, the Ugandan students who emerged winners in last year’s global Huawei ICT Competition were officially rewarded. At the Africa and global level the Network team of Uganda took first position, beating over 34 countries and 107 teams. As a result, the Ugandan team emerged as number one in the 2020 ICT Competitions at global level.
“I thank Huawei for their commitment and look toward to even more partnerships of this kind (ICT Competition). I would like to also congratulate the students who represented Uganda last year at the ICT Competition and raised our flag high by taking first position globally. This shows that our education sector has not only improved but is now competitive globally and a force to be reckoned with,” Dr. Muyingo concluded.
On his part, Mr Yang Chen Frank, the Huawei Technologies Southern Africa Regional Vice President thanked the Government of Uganda for putting a good and peaceful investment climate that has enabled the global ICT service provider exist in Uganda since 2001.
He said under the conducive investment environment, Huawei has been able to make some achievements including training over 2000 Ugandan Youths, certifying hundreds through its 15 ICT academies as of today.
“This is the result of aligning our local strategy with national strategies —this is a very important principle that we stick to when it comes to business and skill and knowledge transfer. A big thank you to the Government of Uganda for creating an enabling environment for digital skill cultivation and ICT talent development as the future now depends on various ICT skills,” Mr Chen said.
The annual Huawei ICT Competition is a key piece of the ICT Academy Rocks Campaign. It targets university and college students worldwide, aiming to facilitate communication between schools, enterprises, and governments while building a robust talent ecosystem.
Through this competition, Huawei aims to challenge the students ICT knowledge as well as the practical and application skills, and ultimately, inspire innovation with the theme of “connection, glory, future”.
The competition covers latest technologies such as cloud computing, AI, mobile networks, big data, that are pertinent to students’ competitiveness in the job market.