ASEAN Foundation joins hands with Huawei to bridge digital talent gap in Asia Pacific

The ASEAN Foundation and Huawei signed MoU on joint efforts to bridge the digital talent gap at the Asia Pacific Innovation Day – Digital Talent Summit 2021 recently. The online summit brought together policymakers, researchers and industry experts to share solutions and best practices in building a sustainable ecosystem that will help foster digital talents in the Asia Pacific.

The Asia Pacific Innovation Day – Digital Talent Summit 2021 started strongly with a series of keynote speeches from governments’ leaders such as Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Political Security Community Robert Matheus Michael Tene, Chair of the ASEAN Digital Senior Official Meeting Dato’ Sri Mohammad Mentek, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Cambodia Dr. Chea Vandeth, the Chief of Presidential Staff of the Republic of Indonesia General TNI (Purn) Dr. Moeldoko, the Minister of Youth and Sports of Sri Lanka Namal Rajapaksa, the Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana, and Permanent Secretary of Thailand Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation Prof. Sirirurg Songsivilai, M.D., Ph.D. Their speeches stressed on the importance of key stakeholders’ proactive participation in developing a solid foundation for digital talent ecosystem in the region.

“The Digital Talent Summit 2021, which aims to discuss and address the needs of ASEAN ICT youth talent, is obviously very relevant, especially in the midst of the global pandemic which forced us to significantly rely more on digital platform. This auspicious event is very much aligned with the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 objective of improving people’s capability to participate in the digital society economy,” said the Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Political Security Community Robert Matheus Michael Tene.

Delivering Keynote address Namal Rajapaksa, Cabinet Minister of Youth and Sports & State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development, Sri Lanka said “We look forward to cooperating with Huawei to build an innovative ecosystem bringing ICT knowledge to digital talents and empowering SMEs to better adapt to the digital transformation of our country” Minister Namal Rajapaksa added.