Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and Huawei Technologies on Wednesday arranged a launching ceremony for the HEC-Huawei ICT Skill Competition 2017 here at the Commission Secretariat premises.

You Yi, the cultural counsellor at the Embassy of China in Pakistan, was the chief guest on the occasion. Mukhtar Ahmed, the HEC chairman; Raza Bhatti, the acting executive director of HEC; Chilin Chun, Huawei Pakistan CEO; and Space Lee, Huawei Middle East Public Relations Department Vice President were also present.

Explaining the background of HEC-Huawei strategic partnership, Mukhtar Ahmed said the bilateral collaboration had started in 2006 and it has helped Pakistan develop its own ICT setup. “Now we have one of the best ICT infrastructure in the region,” he said.

He said the HEC has been working with different partners from around the world in order to provide a good learning environment to Pakistani students. “Huawei is a tested HEC partner, as it has taken different ICT initiatives jointly with HEC including establishment of Pakistan Education and Research Network (PERN), ICT R&D Centre and Cloud Data Centre”, he said, adding that under the Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme, Pakistani students will now have made-in-Pakistan laptops owing to the cooperation of Huawei.

Ahmed said that Huawei, as per Memorandum of Understanding signed with HEC, will also provide training to Pakistani youth on the advent of any new technology. Underlining the importance of Huawei ICT Skill Competition 2017, the chairman informed that as many as 2,300 Pakistani students from 30 universities participated in the Huawei ICT Skill Competition 2016. He said representatives of 30 Chinese business institutions will attend the Business Schools Consortium to be held in the August-end. They will deliberate future collaboration for promotion of business educa.

Published in Daily Times, August 17^th 2017.