Huawei working to bolster participation of women in Saudi’s ICT industry

Speaking to audiences during its recent participation in the third Women Enablement Summit hosted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Huawei has stressed its support for more talent development programs for women in Saudi Arabia’s ICT industry as a means to close the gender gap. The summit itself seeks to enhance female participation in the technology field, increase dialogue with specialists in the sector, boost knowledge-sharing opportunities for women, and stimulate technology innovation and entrepreneurship locally.

Afke Schaart–Taghzout, Senior Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Huawei, was part of this year’s summit to review best practices and share the company’s own expertise through dialogue sessions, workshops, and other consultations.

“We can see that the Kingdom has ramped up its efforts to empower women in the field of communications and information technology. At Huawei, we believe this ultimately comes back to empowerment through education. Joint talent-development programs that combine theoretical and practical applications, and which take learning out of the classroom and into the real world, will prove fundamental in helping women have an even greater impact on the region’s ICT sector,” noted Schaart–Taghzout.

Huawei has previously stated its commitment to developing talent within the Kingdom’s ICT industry in line with the goals of Vision 2030. Through its Saudi Talent Enabling Program (STEP), for example, Huawei aims to benefit 10,000 local talents by 2023.

“The women of Saudi Arabia want to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to not only navigate the future digital economy, but to become its pioneers and leaders,” concluded Schaart–Taghzout.

This week, Huawei also officially launched its Huawei Women Developers (HWD) program, which aims to empower women developers internationally to create applications and tools that can change the world.