The newly appointed chief executive of Huawei Technologies (Thailand) is committed to developing the nation as the digital hub of Asean, supporting businesses and startups to adopt secure and reliable cloud solutions and playing a part in improving the country's Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) ranking.
David Li was promoted to the top position, replacing Abel Deng who became president of Huawei Asia-Pacific's carrier business department.
Speaking during a news briefing yesterday, Mr Li said demand for green energy is growing rapidly in line with the carbon neutral trend and Huawei will provide solutions and global practices that will push Thailand towards the Asean carbon neutral leader and electric vehicle (EV) production hub in the region.
These commitments are part of its six strategic businesses to pursue in 2023.
The six comprise 5G infrastructure for vertical industry adoption; cloud for enterprise business; digital transformation; green energy with new energy solutions for sustainability; cybersecurity; and local ecosystem promotion, including the incubation of digital talent.
"All operations are in line with our mission of 'Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand'," said Mr Li.
Thailand is one of 5G technology leaders in Asean as the country is one of the early adopters of 5G technology and the country has attained advancement in 5G technology with strong implementation progress.
The country has a strong digital infrastructure, such as telecom network with nationwide roll-out.
Thailand has embraced 5G tech in the past couple of years of the pandemic, including telemedicine.
Huawei has provided 5G solutions to local partners, including two ports and six hospitals, to help them adopt innovation, said Mr Li.
The next development of 5G tech is to create digitalisation value for vertical industry with advanced solutions, such as augmented reality and virtual reality.
In addition, the company is committed to promoting cybersecurity awareness in Thailand by sharing its knowledge and experience in the sector, particularly in relation to 5G technology, with regulators, industries and customers, he said.
"The move is meant to boost the efficiency of cybersecurity and data protection for Thailand's ICT infrastructure and enhance the country's GCI ranking," he said.
According to the GCI 2020 report, Thailand ranked 44th out of 194 countries measured around the world.
With a leading digital power tech provider, Mr Li said the company will support Thailand by providing solutions and global practices that would help support the country's ambition to become Asean's carbon neutral leader.
"Despite the global economic slowdown, demand for ICT infrastructure including digital solutions, especially digital power and green energy grow exponentially," said Mr Li.
Thailand has high potential to be developed as an EV hub in the region, he said.
In 2023, the company will be placing a strong emphasis on building ICT personnel in Thailand with the goal of cultivating 20,000 developers within three years, Mr Li said.
The firm aims to develop relevant technology skills for local developers through activities, skill-building workshops and certification via Huawei's various training programmes.
The programmes include the Social Digital Bus project, which will extend to cover 10 provinces and train up to 2,000 students, and SME incubator programme Spark Ignite.
Huawei has played a key role in developing the country's digital economy, said Mr Li.
The firm has set up three local data centres for cloud services, worked with more than 300 partners to enter 10 industries with intelligent solutions, enabled digital power to support Thailand's carbon neutral goal, shared cybersecurity knowledge and helped develop more than 60,000 digital talents in the country.
