China's tech giant Huawei aims to foster Thai digital talent ecosystem

BANGKOK, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei announced its collaboration with Thailand's Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Labor on Friday, aiming to strengthen the country's digital talent ecosystem and create value-added job opportunities.

Gathering over 200 participants from across government, academia and industries, the Thailand Digital Talent Summit and Job Fair held in Bangkok unveiled the new strategic partnerships with multiple stakeholders from China and Thailand, marking a crucial step for the Southeast Asian country towards becoming a regional digital economy hub.

By collaborating with more than 20 universities to offer Huawei digital and cloud developer courses, the three parties have set the goal of training 10,000 information and communications technology (ICT) professionals, 5,000 cloud artificial intelligence developers, and 2,000 green engineers by 2025.

With the Huawei ASEAN Academy platform, the company focuses on four critical areas for developing digital talents, including business school, technical school, engineering school and digital inclusion, covering all the bases from fostering digital leadership for organization executives to initiatives to provide equal access to digital learning for disadvantaged groups, said David Li, CEO of Huawei Thailand.

In his opening speech, Li said Huawei has collaborated with various partners to develop more than 96,000 digital talents so far while providing free training for rural students and residents. The company also signed ICT Academy cooperation agreements with 42 Thai leading universities.

Underscoring the importance of partnerships in fostering digital talents, Supamas Isarabhakdi, minister of higher education, science, research and innovation, said the ministry is on a mission to build manpower that meets the needs of the nation's development and joining forces with Huawei will drive digital innovation and research policies that are specifically designed for incubating qualified personnel.

Through academic exchanges and knowledge sharing, it emphasized the importance of experiencing and observing China's distinct work ethic and competitiveness, which could inspire improvements in Thai work practices, said Sumet Prabhavat, assistant professor at the Faculty of Information Technology, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.

The collaboration also highlights the potential for Thai students to benefit from exposure to diverse knowledge and career opportunities in China, possibly leading to the exploration of new career paths, Sumet told Xinhua.