Students from the Middle East region took top honors with their outstanding performance at the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-2023 Global Final concluded recently at Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen, China. The first to be held in person since 2019, the event’s culmination was a competition between finalists in 146 teams from 36 countries. Before the Final, more than 120,000 students from more than 2,000 universities in 74 countries and regions around the world took part in the ICT Competition.

The team from UAE comprising Higher Colleges of Technology and University of Sharjah won the first prize in the Network Track among other teams globally. The team from Iraq comprising Salahaddin University and University of Anbar, the team from Jordan comprising Princess Sumaya University for Technology and Yarmouk University, and the team from Bahrain comprising Bahrain Polytechnic won the second prize in the Network Track among other teams globally. The team from Saudi Arabia comprising King Faisal University and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation Colleges won the third prize in the Network Track among other teams globally.

In parallel, Team 1 from Jordan comprising Princess Sumaya University for Technology/King Hussein School of Computing Sciences won the third prize in the Innovation Track among other teams globally.

This year, the proportion of female contestants in the global final exceeded 21%, an increase of 8% compared to 3 years ago.

Shunli Wang, VP of Huawei Middle East & Central Asia said, "I would like to congratulate all the winning teams from Middle East. Digital talents and skills will be the foundation for the digital economy development- a key part of Middle East countries future plans and visions- and Huawei will continue to be committed to build the ICT ecosystem with a focus on local talents nurturing and bringing ICT education resources to more academies and universities in the region.”

Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, sent her wishes for the Huawei ICT Competition through a video. She said that Huawei ICT Competition not only improved students' digital skills, but also explored feasible solutions for the sustainable development. She expressed that UNESCO fully supports Huawei's efforts in the education industry to improve global connectivity and digital skills.

The Huawei ICT Competition aims to provide a platform for global college students to compete and communicate with each other in the ICT field. As of the end of 2022, Huawei has cooperated with 2200 universities to build Huawei ICT Academies, helping to train more than 200,000 students each year. Since its initial launch in 2015, more than 580,000 students from 85 countries and regions around the world have participated in the competition.

Globally Huawei is committed to build 7,000 Huawei ICT Academies in total by 2026, train more than 1 million students every year, greatly improving students' digital literacy and skills for a more dynamic and inclusive digital world. In the Middle East region alone, Huawei has trained over 150,000 ICT talents and are committed to achieving more in collaboration with its partners while over 57,000 people have obtained Huawei certification. Also, the number of Huawei ICT Academies in the region has reached to186.