The Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of touch, Engineer Salem Itani, took part in the opening ceremony of Huawei’s flagship annual ICT Competition 2022-2023 in Lebanon, organized in partnership with the Ministry of Telecommunications and in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor. 

This year’s competition was launched during a ceremony held at Phoenicia Hotel, and attended by H.E Mr. Johnny Corm, Minister of Telecommunications, H.E. Dr. Moustafa Bayram, Minister of Labor, Ms. Li Jing, Commercial Consultant at the People's Republic of China Embassy to Lebanon, Mr. Salem Itani, Chairman and CEO of Touch, Mr. Jad Nassif, Chairman and CEO of Alfa, and Mr. in addition to senior representatives from the Ministry of Telecommunications, Ministry of Labor, Lebanese DT Network, PC Association, EdTech and IT Syndicates, in addition to Top Universities, and senior executives from Huawei.

 

In his speech, Itani praised “Huawei’s initiative to reorganize the ICT competition in Lebanon, our main partner in the development of touch network since we began cooperating with Huawei in 2010 when we implemented the first 3G network, followed by 4G deployment nationwide between 2016 and 2017, and conducting the first live commercial trial of 5G technology in Lebanon in 2018, using for the first time in Lebanon the commercial equipment of this technology from Huawei.”

 

As for the competition itself, Itani said “that it’s title “A Message of Innovation from Lebanon to the World," inspires hope, especially in the hearts of the Lebanese youth and university students, to see that the innovation process that has always distinguished Lebanon is back on track, despite all difficult circumstances. Huawei’s vision of supporting innovation among the young ICT Lebanese talents meets touch’s digital strategy promoting innovation, that we adapted  before 2019 crisis started, through several initiatives, mainly “touch Innovation Program (TIP), a key hub for innovative minds, and its goal was to empower entrepreneurs and provide them with the opportunity to realize their vision and engage in new areas in the digital market, noting that it was the first accelerator of its kind in Lebanon at the level of the private institutional sector, for startups in Lebanon. We also had a cooperation with the MIT Forum for Arab Startups in line with our focus on the youth generation and innovation pillar, part of the company’s corporate sustainability program, Positive touch, where we were partners in more than one edition of the annual competition organized for entrepreneurship in the Arab world.”

 

From October to December, thousands of undergraduate students are expected to participate in Huawei’s ICT Competition, which is being held virtually. Winners of the regional competitions will receive a certification, future learning opportunities, trophy, internship, opportunities to join Huawei or Huawei partners, and 20, 000 USD cash prize. 

The competition further promotes creativity amongst students by acting as a bridge between the classroom and the workforce, enhancing students’ future employment opportunities. The training courses and competition program this year focus on modern technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, data storage, big data, Security, Datacom, WLAN and enhancing communication between talented youth in the region. The competition is considered one of the auxiliary channels for the current efforts made by governments, universities, and educational institutions in the field of talent discovery and support to prepare future leaders who will be responsible for leading the development process by relying on technology.