Huawei hosted its annual Singapore Ecosystem Summit themed ‘Transform with Growth’ on Thursday, 29 April. The summit convened 2,021 participants, including customers, channel business partners, government representatives, academics and industry experts.
In his welcome address, Nicholas Ma, CEO of Huawei International Pte Ltd., outlined the growth of Huawei in 2020, citing a global sales revenue of CNY891.4 billion, up by 3.8% YoY. This performance was achieved despite the company facing international challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nicholas Ma noted three key trends in this digital transformation era: the extension of digitization to traditional sectors such as education, healthcare, finance, energy, construction and transportation; the acceleration of Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) use due to the Covid pandemic; and the convergence of information technology and operations technology (IT & OT convergence).
“Based on its post-Covid forecasts and to facilitate digital transformation further, Huawei will continue to innovate in technology, such as intelligent networks, storage, Cloud, data centers and green energy. The company will also develop industry solutions such as video cloud and smart campuses,” Nicholas Ma said.
Huawei celebrates 20 years in Singapore
2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Huawei in Singapore. Despite the pandemic, the company achieved positive milestones in 2020. Huawei Singapore Enterprise business grew its revenue by 50%, with a 47% increase year-on-year of its channel revenue and a 127% revenue increase by its strategic Focus Partners. Last year, Huawei also achieved 100% channel sales, 120% growth for the number of total certifications obtained by its professional partners, and a 93% increase in the company’s Certified Service Partner (CSP) program. It was also noted that Huawei Cloud grew tenfold and in the last 3 years, Huawei has launched over 220 cloud services in 23 categories, as well as over 210 industry-tailored or general solutions for 15 industries.
To support joint innovation across industries, Huawei has launched AILAb, OpenLab and DigiX Lab in Singapore. Representing an investment of USD 40 million, the Huawei DigiX Lab, which enables developers to test apps and services for mobile devices, is the first in the Asia-Pacific region.
During a panel discussion themed “Digital Transformation in the New Normal”, four guest speakers representing various industries and public organizations, namely Mr. Donald Lum, Senior VP of Technology at SATS, Mr Lim Khiang Tong, Head of Group Operations & Technology, OCBC Bank, Mr Yeo Teck Guan, Chief Business Technology officer, Singapore Pools, and Mr Howie Lau, Assistant Chief Executive at the Infocomm Media Development Authority, IMDA commented on the Covid-19 effects as key drivers to digital transformation.
The panel shed insight on ways to adopt tech and leverage thought leadership to accelerate digital transformation, disruptions in organisations to automate and add value to customers, as well as the importance of investing in people to reskill and upskill with in-house and national programmes, amongst other meaningful takeaways.
In addition to current ICT trends and insights shared by the diverse experts and guest speakers, Huawei launched new solutions and products, such as IdeaHub, an interactive whiteboard for smart offices, to cope with the fast-changing pace of global digitalization.
Aaron Wang, Managing Director of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, shared that in 2021 Huawei will continue to focus on 4 + 2 – _“4 Star Products”: Dorado Storage V6, Wifi 6, UPS Lithium Battery, Transmission DC 908, as well as 2 solutions: Video Cloud and Smart Campus to continuously support customers in their digital transformation journey. Huawei will also focus on Cloud and Solar Energy Solution, with plans to launch its 5th AZ (Availability Zones) Cloud Datacenter in Singapore this year.
