Jakarta. Huawei Indonesia, the local arm of the Shenzhen-based tech giant Huawei, pledged continuous support for Bandung Institute of Technology, or ITB, in technology sharing, as the university celebrated its 101st anniversary earlier this week.

“Huawei Indonesia is honored to build a partnership with a world-class university that produces globally competent talents in technology and encourages research-based innovations in Indonesia,” Huawei Indonesia chief executive officer Jacky Chen said in a statement.

“Huawei is ready to continue ramping up our support and the synergy we have built together through knowledge and technology-sharing programs to accelerate the digital transformation towards an advanced, innovation-based Indonesia," he said.

Jacky expects the knowledge, and tech-sharing programs will increase in the future as next-generation technologies, including 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), experience mass adoption. ITB is also among the fourteen universities in Indonesia that have partnered with Huawei in AI research.

According to ITB rector Reini Wirahadikusumah, the university looks forward to closer cooperation with Huawei as it strives to become a smart campus with 5G adoption. 

"This partnership contributes to our increasing understanding of next-generation technologies that universities have to be able to anticipate, including preparing technology human resources capable of answering industry needs, adhere to global competency standards, and able to bring digital transformation to all parts of society, as well as give rise to innovations for the sake of our nation," Reini said.

The partnership in generating digital talents has also borne fruits at the global Huawei ICT Competition. Last year, ITB students won top spots at the global competition after winning the network and cloud categories at the Asia-Pacific level. 

Huawei Indonesia aims to cultivate 100,000 digital talents in the country by 2024. According to Jacky, a multiple helix synergy between the government, industry, and academia would also be able to accelerate the step towards an optimal and democratized digital transformation.