Crown Prince Foundation partners with Huawei to launch second edition of ICT Competition

Shaheennews – 

The Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Huawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, to launch the second edition of the Jordan ICT Competition.

The announcement was made at a ceremony attended by CPF CEO, Tamam Mango, in the presence of Chinese Ambassador to Jordan, Pan Weifang, according to a Huawei statement.

Building upon the success of the first round of the 2017 ICT Competition, the second edition will run in Jordan and nine other countries in the Middle East, it said.

It is a critical initiative in the region, as it prepares the next generation of leaders for an intelligent world where every person, home and organization is fully connected. Combining the company’s CSR goal of nurturing local ICT talent with its vision of building the local digital ICT ecosystem, Huawei aims to assist Jordan to pursue its national agenda for digital transformation, the statement pointed out.

According to the Jordan Economic Growth Plan 2018 – 2022, Jordan is moving away from seeing ICT as an isolated sector and towards digitizing the entire Jordanian economy. This is in line with the government’s ambitious REACH2025 action plan, a 2016 mandate to digitize the nation and ensure Jordan’s relevance in the global digital economy. The ICT Competition is aimed at supporting the success of the government’s ambitions, it said.

It said the competition promotes innovation and creativity among students, while increasing competitiveness and encouraging the youth to contribute to achieving the country’s national vision for digitalization and economic growth.

It will also enhance students’ future employment opportunities by bridging the gap between the classroom and the workplace and providing hands-on skills development training at Huawei’s state of the art labs, R&D centers and facilities in Shenzhen, China, it added.

Throughout the competition phases, according to the statement, students will gain knowledge and experience in the latest ICT technologies through course material on advanced IP and IT and get a glimpse of 5G technology which is set to disrupt the way business is carried out and people interact.

Two hundred students are expected to participate in the competition. After two rounds of highly selective examinations at a local and national level, the top three will form a team to represent Jordan at the international finals scheduled to take place in December 2018 at Huawei’s global headquarters in China.

Mango, the CEO of Crown Prince Foundation, said: “The ICT Competition addresses an urgent need felt by our students by helping them to learn skills that will transfer to the marketplace, and by giving them exposure to the most advanced technology expertise under the tutelage of a global ICT leader. We thank Huawei for their valuable contribution to the Kingdom – supporting our youth is CPF’s priority – and we look forward to working together to build on this success.

Hazem Haddad, Huawei’s Deputy General Manager in Levant, commented, “We are excited to partner with the Crown Prince Foundation for the second round of the ICT Competition. Openness and knowledge-sharing is at the heart of the Huawei ethos, and we hope that this initiative will help Jordan become more globally competitive and build the local digital ecosystem by enhancing the digital skills of the young generation”, he said.

Senator Wajih Owais stressed the importance of Huawei’s role in enabling Jordanian students to apply the knowledge they have learned in a practical environment, acquire new skills and compete with each other in order to enable themselves to access the latest technologies and electronic applications, especially with the support of a global company like as Huawei.

Pan Weifang, the Chinese ambassador, added, “I was here to witness the opening of the first ICT competition, and I’m delighted to be here again this year. The Competition is a great contribution to the youth of Jordan, and I’m proud of all the efforts Huawei, in collaboration with the Crown Prince Foundation, is making to promote digitalization in the Kingdom”, he said.

As they did last year, the Jordanian team will receive an all-expense paid immersion trip to Huawei’s global headquarters in China in November this year. This will give them an opportunity to meet the brand’s leadership and a priceless cultural and knowledge exchange experience. The international finalists will receive certificates, trophies, prizes and a top prize of US$ 30,000 for the winning team, in addition to employment opportunities at Huawei for the most outstanding candidates, the statement said.