JAKARTA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has strengthened collaboration with Chinese tech giant Huawei in developing smart campuses and speeding up digital transformation in education for the Southeast Asian country, both parties announced Friday.
The collaboration is mainly realized through the agenda of Huawei APAC ICT Competition, organized by Huawei and hosted by Indonesia, which aims to cultivate talents for the ICT (Information and communications technology) industry who are expected to fulfill the human resource demands for digital transformation.
Huawei and Indonesia's Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology announced on Friday the winning teams of the international-scale competition that had attracted more than 4,800 Huawei ICT Academy students and teachers from 290 leading universities and colleges across 10 countries in Asia Pacific.
"We hope our students can use this competition as a golden opportunity to benchmark their ICT knowledge and broaden their perspectives. This competition will also provide the necessary feedback for us so that we can continuously upgrade our effectiveness and efficiency in digital talent cultivation," the ministry's Director General of Higher Education, Nizam, said at the award ceremony of the competition.
On the same occasion, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific Public Affairs and Communications Department Zhang Zhengjun introduced a talent development model called PIPES, short for Platforms, Innovation, Professionalism, Experience, and Skills.
"PIPES is designed to provide tailored training programs for individuals from all walks of life, including the young generation, government officials, ICT practitioners, entrepreneurs, and the general public," Zhang said.
"With PIPES, we are establishing a robust talent pipeline, not just for ourselves, but also for the digital future of the entire region," Zhang added.
Attending the ceremony as a keynote speaker, Indonesia's Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said that human development had become President Joko Widodo's priority program, which needs 9 million digital talents by 2030.
"Indonesian digital talents will have the opportunity to compete in the global arena if we let them be trained and prepared well," Moeldoko said, noting that the competition can "further shape the digital ecosystem and motivate digital talents in Indonesia."
The competition can also be an effective platform in scouting and developing the best digital talent, Moeldoko said.
