Sabrina Meng's Speech at the Digital and Intelligent APAC Congress 2024

The Huawei Digital and Intelligent APAC Congress, jointly held by Huawei and the ASEAN Foundation, took place in Bangkok. More than 2,000 government officials, scholars, partners, and analysts from 15 Asia-Pacific countries and regions attended. Together, they discussed the deployment of leading digital and intelligent infrastructure, looking for ways to build a digital, intelligent Asia-Pacific.

Sabrina Meng, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board and CFO of Huawei, delivered an opening speech via video.

The following is the full text of Meng's speech:

Asia-Pacific is not only one of the world's most vibrant regions. It has also become a role model for other regions that are trying to go digital and grow their digital economies. The potential for growth here is unmatched.

Huawei has been honored to be part of this process. It has been great to work with such wonderful customers and partners who are driving the region's digital transformation.

Throughout history, new communications technologies have always led to profound changes in human connection. And over the last two decades, digital and network technologies have been developing more rapidly than scientists predicted.

Today, 4G, 5G, and optical networks are connecting people in countries at various development stages more closely than ever. Affordable digital services are now available in every country and region, no matter how remote.

Each time new technology is adopted, it has the potential to change lives.

For example, in Nigeria, 5G-powered telemedicine systems are providing critical care to even the most remote villages.

In Italy, IoT is used to listen to nature, helping collect and transmit audio data from protected wetlands. This automated solution helps conservationists cover wider areas at lower costs.

In Bangladesh, mobile wallets are making financial services more accessible, helping numerous small and micro-sized businesses rapidly develop.

And in Western China's most mountainous regions, e-learning platforms are connecting children to the education resources that are often only found in bigger cities. This is expanding their worlds, one class at a time.

Distance might cause discrepancy or inequality, but with the wide adoption of information technologies, quality resources are more accessible than ever; more people and families now benefit from digital services.

Digital technologies are continuing to make the spread of information and knowledge more affordable. This will eventually benefit everyone. As an old Chinese poem goes, "Though separated by green mountains, we share both clouds and rain. The bright moon belongs to no single town."

Every new application and breakthrough in information technology is the result of global collaboration, between regulators, standards bodies, and industry players. 3GPP, for example, has more than 800 members from over 40 countries and regions. More than 2,000 organizations have been involved in defining 5G standards.

Openness bridges gaps in the world. Collaboration lets us build off each other. Working together, we are on a path to a brighter future.

We live in a connected world, where technology has become a key driver for social progress and economic development.

Digital technologies like AI are driving transformation across all industries. Computing is becoming a new force of productivity; data is becoming a new element of production; cloud and AI are becoming new tools.

AI foundation models are trained on global data. Digital and intelligent technologies are not bound to specific places. But huge gaps remain between different countries and regions when it comes to access and application.

These gaps will not close on their own. We need to work together to bridge them. We need to encourage innovation, strengthen collaboration, and overcome technical barriers. This is how everyone can benefit from technological advances.

For conservative people, the present is the end of the past. For progressive people, the present is the beginning of the future.

Huawei embraces the coming intelligent world with our All Intelligence strategy. This will help accelerate the intelligent transformation of all industries. We want to make all things connectable, all applications modellable, and all decisions computable.

We value research and innovation. And over the past decade, we have invested over one trillion Chinese yuan into R&D.

Moving forward, we will continue to focus on creating value for customers. And we will openly collaborate with partners to provide 5.5G, cloud, digital power, and other technologies.

We want to do our part to bring the benefits of digital and intelligent technologies to people in Asia-Pacific. And we want to promote the integrated development of the digital and real economies.

When pushing the boundaries of technology, the sky is the limit. But technology also needs to be grounded and benefit everyone.

You harvest what you sow. So, let's embrace open innovation to promote inclusion. Let's plant the seeds of hope and help the digital economy bloom in Asia-Pacific.