In an exclusive meeting with a group of Jordanian media, Shunli Wang, Huawei's Vice President in the Middle East, reaffirmed the company's commitment to supporting the development of Jordan's telecom sector and the wider ICT ecosystem. The senior regional executive confirmed the company’s mandate in the ICT talent ecosystem in Jordan through the continuous investments in CSR initiatives and programs targeted at nurturing the local talent. With these initiatives, Huawei aims to develop the future technology leaders that can drive Jordan's digital transformation, socio-economic development and the Kingdom's future digital economy.
Wang further highlighted that the company is looking to introduce the 5G network benefits to Jordan, coupled with AI, Cloud and other advanced technologies to better serve the citizens' needs. He also called for maintaining a fair, unbiased and transparent 5G business environment. Huawei believes that providing equal opportunities to all global telecom vendors based on a proven track record of existing work with operators, global experience, cost and industry standards will ensure the international competitiveness of Jordan's telecom market.
The Regional Vice President stated that Huawei started business in Jordan 17 years ago and has maintained close relationships and strong collaborations with three local carriers – Zain, Orange and Umniah – to jointly provide continuous and secure network connections and services across the country. In addition, the company maintained an excellent record of zero accidents in the past 17 years. Huawei engineers and experts have always supported their customers and partners in challenging times such as the heavy snow and COVID-19.
Huawei Jordan currently has over 300 direct employees and contributes more than 2,000 indirect jobs. The global ICT leader serves customers across diverse sectors to achieve their digital transformation goals by utilizing its international experience and best practices and providing advanced technologies, solutions, products and services to enrich people's lives.
"Huawei has always been customer-centric and committed to creating value for its customers in Jordan. In addition, we attach great importance to openness and collaboration for shared success. We are dedicated to transparent communications with customers, partners, government regulation bodies, industry organizations, universities and think tanks. We hope to work with all stakeholders to achieve core technological innovations and support the development of Jordan's ICT ecosystem, creating more value for promoting industry upgrades and social development," Wang added.
In the 5G business, in particular, Huawei has helped some Middle Eastern countries to build high-speed 5G networks and reach 11 million 5G users, including 1.3 million home users. In addition, the company partnered with carriers to explore 5GtoB services for critical sectors such as the oil and gas and ports, helping them to improve production efficiency and safety, reduce operational costs, and create opportunities for operators to enter the new blue ocean of the industry.
Wang attributed the company's success in the 5G business to its strong R&D and continuous bold investments in innovations. Huawei started researching 5G technologies in 2009 and maintained heavy investment in R&D and innovation over the years. Huawei's R&D investment over the past decade has exceeded $132.5 billion. In 2021 alone, the company invested $22.4 billion in R&D, or 22.4% of the company's total revenue. Huawei has one of the largest patent portfolios in the world. By 2021, it held more than 110,000 active patents across more than 45,000 families. This led to a successful 5G business and the signing of more than 3,000 commercial contracts for industrial 5G applications globally.
Wang further highlighted that the company provides a wide range of telecom and ICT solutions, products and services to Jordanian customers. This includes the traditional telecom industry lines such as 2G, 3G, and 4G networks for Zain, Orange and Umniah, serving around 5 million citizens in Jordan with zero accidents over 17 years. Other industry examples include ICT infrastructure in banking for the top three banks; storage in MoDEE; network of PSD; video conferencing systems for Jordan's Ministry of Justice; university campus network for the top five universities in Jordan and more. On the consumer side, Huawei provides the full range of Huawei Consumer business group products such as smartphones, laptops, watches, accessories and more.
For Wang, Huawei's key contribution in Jordan is represented by its CSR initiatives for ICT talent development, which helps boost the ICT talent ecosystem to further support customers and the government to achieve their digital transformation. "To date, we have opened four ICT academies in Jordan, with Hashemite University, Al- Balqa' Applied University, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, and Jordan University of Science and Technology," he stated.
"We hope to boost our collaboration with the public and private sectors in Jordan to elevate the efforts of joint work to nurture more local ICT talents, creating the next generation of future ICT leaders in Jordan. This can be achieved through open collaborations and partnerships with governments, universities, enterprises and the full range of ICT talent ecosystem stakeholders who believes in the joint target of building the talent pool for the prosperity of Jordan's Digital future. Huawei's target is to contribute to cultivating 10,000 talents in Jordan in the next three years through the Huawei ICT Academy certifications program," Wang added.
During the event, Wang also mentioned that during the recent HUAWEI CLOUD Summit, the company launched public cloud services in Jordan and initiated a start-up program to support SMEs with advanced cloud services and communication platforms in partnership with international venture capitalists. HUAWEI CLOUD is currently the fastest-growing cloud services provider in the world, operating 65 Availability Zones in 27 Regions. It has attracted more than three million developers, 28,000 consulting partners, 9,000 technical partners, and 19 data centers and released more than 250 cloud services, over 210 solutions, and 7,400 KooGallery products five years since its launch.
On cyber security, Wang said: "We are committed to protecting the personal data of our consumers, customers, suppliers, partners, and other relevant entities. We comply with all privacy and personal data protection laws and regulations everywhere we operate." Wang also reiterated that Huawei continues to place cyber security and privacy protection as a top priority and restated its commitment to communicating and cooperating with all stakeholders in an open, transparent, and responsible manner.
The company believes that cyber security is a shared responsibility and that with digital transformation picking up pace, cyber security will become a cornerstone of the future digital world. Therefore, challenges need to be addressed through technological innovation, knowledge sharing, standards development, verification, and other internationally credited measures.
Huawei has a proven track record in cyber security globally. Over 70 cyber security certifications were awarded to Huawei, providing customers with internationally recognized security assurances. To date, the company has submitted over 65,000 standards contributions to more than 200 standards organizations. Huawei 5G base station was the first to pass the industry NESAS/SCAS 2.0 evaluation.
Huawei has supported the stable operations of over 1,500 networks in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population.