HUAWEI has announced it will host a dominant line up of global leaders during an event titled Innovation Day. Scheduled to take place on the first day of GITEX under the theme "Leading New ICT – Shape the Future"; Innovation Day will raise awareness on the role ICT is playing in driving digital transformation and building sustainable knowledge-based economies in the region. The leading ICT provider will dedicate the event to showcasing the role of innovation in building sustainable, smart cities of the future. The theme falls in line with Huawei's vision to partner with governments across the Middle East to create some of the most advanced knowledge-based economies in the world. Research results will be released for the ‘Smart Cities Index', a whitepaper produced by Huawei in partnership with Navigant Research. The report explores the readiness of key cities across the world and the GCC to be categorized as a smart city. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh are some of the cities that the index will examine their ICT infrastructure. In addition to providing recommendations on how cities can improve their rankings and become ‘smarter'. The event will also include a panel discussion comprised of industry leaders, set to deep-dive into the role of ICT in business development, achieving commercial growth, and innovation's impact on accelerating economies and driving government agendas. "During the past 30 years, we have witnessed this world become fully connected; with 10Bn connections today, and expected to grow further rapidly. Everything around us is evolving into Cloud. Finance, education and healthcare –to name a few– are shifting their services into Cloud. It is anticipated that more than 85% of enterprise applications will be Cloud within the next 10 years," said Charles Yang, President, Huawei Middle East. "Our societies, communities, work, home and surroundings are developing to achieve the ultimate goal of being fully smart. With the help of artificial intelligence, this development depends on one cornerstone: ICT," he added. "Huawei views the Middle East as a significant market where we contribute to the development of the ICT industry and enabling the region's digital society. We are keen to play an integral role in supporting regional national goals pertaining to ICT plans, through connecting systems, businesses, cities, societies and people in order to transform industries, improve efficiencies, and ultimately create better experiences for everyone. Visit us at Huawei's first Middle East Innovation Day where we will take you into the future!" Charles noted. "Much like the industrial revolution, multiple industries are benefitting in ways they could never have imagined before. Agriculture, transport, public safety, tourism, energy, and plenty of others are beginning to feel the full effects of what it means to be better connected and to be smart," said David Harmon, VP, Global Public Affairs at Huawei. "We owe much of this to advances in cloud computing, that continue to allow us to better scale, manage, digest and use our data and workloads at fractional costs, which leads us to the question: what to expect next?" Throughout GITEX, Huawei will unveil a number of new partnerships and ICT solutions aimed at accelerating the adoption of smarter, safer cities across the region, with a particular focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing.
