The 10th Huawei ICT Competition APAC Finals and Awards Ceremony concluded at the ASEAN Headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. This competition was organized by Huawei and co-hosted by ASEAN Foundation, attracting over 8,600 students from 14 countries and regions to participate in the Practice Competition (including the cloud track, network track, computing track) and the Innovation Competition. After multiple rounds of selection, more than 160 students from 13 countries and regions successfully advanced to the APAC Finals.
H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Secretary-General of ASEAN; Dr. Fauzan Adziman, Director General of Research and Development, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Republic of Indonesia; Dr. Boni Pudjianto, Head of Agency for Human Resources Development on Communications and Digital Affairs, Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs Republic of Indonesia; H.E. Ambassador Sarah Al Bakri Devadason, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the ASEAN Foundation and Permanent Representative of Malaysia to ASEAN and members of the Board of Trustees of the ASEAN Foundation; H.E. Wang Qing, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of The People’s Republic of China to ASEAN; H.E. Nararya S. Soeprapto, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs; Dr. Piti Srisangnam, ASEAN Foundation Executive Director; Kishore Babu Yerraballa, ITU Area Representative for Southeast Asia and other Member States in Asia and the Pacific attended the ceremony.
ASEAN Secretary-General H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn expressed support for the competition in his opening remarks, emphasizing, “Empowering young talents is the source of our region’s creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit. As underscored in the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2030, our digital talent is the heartbeat of this vision.”
Subsequently, the competition announced the winners for each track. The team from National University of Singapore was awarded the Grand Prize in the Innovation Competition for their work, which was highly innovative and had both commercial and social value. In the Practice Competition, the teams from Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology claimed the top honor in both the Computing Track and the Cloud Track, while the team from the Philippines Bulacan State University captured the Grand Prize in the Network Track.
Teams from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Japan, Laos, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong SAR (China), and Macao SAR (China) took home first, second, and third prizes across the four competition tracks. A total of 16 outstanding teams, including the Grand Prize winners, will represent the APAC region at the global finals in Shenzhen this June. They will compete against more than 100 teams from around the world.
During the 10th Huawei ICT Competition APAC Finals and Award Ceremony, Huawei Asia Pacific also announced several significant collaborations and initiatives focused on AI talent development. Mr. Peter Pan, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, said: “As we mark this 10th edition, we look forward to even greater impact: continuing to inspire innovation, encourage collaboration, and support the next generation of digital talent in our region.”
At the ceremony, the white paper “ICT Job Roles and Skills in the Intelligent World”, jointly developed by Huawei, IDC, OpenAtom Foundation, and Global Intelligent Internet of Things Consortium, was released overseas for the first time. Witnessed by Dr. Boni Pudjianto, Head of Agency for Human Resources Development at Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, the white paper was unveiled by Sun Hu, Huawei Service Fellow. The white paper identifies key trends, skill shifts, and training pathways for ICT roles in the intelligent era, serving as a strategic reference for the education sector and industry. Concurrently, the Huawei ICT Academy curriculum unveiled a major upgrade, introducing AI courses that deliver complete, actionable teaching resources to universities and training institutions across the region.
To accelerate AI talent ecosystem development, representatives from Huawei, the ASEAN Foundation, and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) joined a symbolic collaboration moment on AI talent development, youth empowerment, and digital capacity development in the region. The symbolic collaboration moment reflected the shared aspiration to continue supporting digital inclusion and future digital talent cultivation across Asia Pacific.
For many years, Huawei has remained committed to its core philosophy of “In Asia Pacific, for Asia Pacific,” acting as a bridge between governments, universities, and enterprises to build a thriving, sustainable ecosystem that fosters ICT talent development across the region. Over the past nine years, the Huawei ICT Academy has achieved remarkable growth in APAC, expanding from just 2 institutions in 2 countries and regions to over 500 institutions across 18 countries and regions. To date, the program has trained more than 160,000 students, with over 60,000 currently enrolled. Looking ahead, Huawei will continue to explore new frontiers in AI talent cultivation, supporting Asia Pacific nations in nurturing the next generation of digital talent.
