Huawei to connect 120m in rural areas by 2025

Chinese technology giant Huawei has taken initiatives to bring connectivity to about 120 million people in remote areas of over 80 countries, including Bangladesh, by 2025.

In order to achieve this target, Huawei has already signed a global commitment to join the International Telecommunication Union's Partner2Connect digital alliance, said Huawei Chairman Liang Hua at its sustainability forum, "Connectivity+: Innovate for Impact", held in Shenzhen, China and online, on Wednesday.

"The challenge of digital inclusion continues as nearly 2.7 billion people across the globe are still left offline. For equal inclusion and sustainable growth, Huawei plans to bring 120 million people under connectivity by 2025," said Liang Hua. 

In the keynote address, Liang Hua said "Connectivity will be more than just a tool for convenient communications. Together with digital technologies like cloud and AI, connectivity will help bring everyone into the digital world, and provide them access to more information and skills, better services, and wider business opportunities. This will, in turn, drive further social and economic development."

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar virtually joined the event as a panel discussant.

Senior leaders of the International Telecommunication Union and United Nations, telecom ministers and regulators of Cambodia, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and business leaders, partners, experts, and customers from China, South Africa, Belgium, and Germany also joined the programme. 

In the panel discussion, the forum explored how ICT innovation could unleash the business and social value of connectivity and drive sustainability in the digital economy era. 

Mustafa Jabbar said the primary objective of the telecommunications industry is to connect the whole population of Bangladesh.

"We understand that connectivity is the key to success in every sector whether it is education, industrial, or textiles. Wherever connections are established, prospects and relationships flourish, triggering socioeconomic development," he said. 

Siddharth Chatterjee, United Nations resident coordinator in China, called for multi-stakeholder partnerships of policymakers, the private sector, academia, and civil society to close the sobering reality of a digital divide which excluded a third of the global population. 

"Our dynamic world urgently needs improved digital cooperation to capitalise on the transformational potential of technology to create new jobs, boost financial inclusion, close the gender gap, spur a green recovery, and redesign our world to be more prosperous and inclusive," he said.