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Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) The Huawei ICT Competition 2019–2020 Global Final kicked off at the Huawei Base. Under the theme of “Connection · Glory · Future”, this year’s competition is being held online. A total of 110 teams (330 students) from 39 countries and regions will compete in this annual event. On November 14, the closing and award ceremony will be held at the Huawei Base.

This year marks the fifth iteration of the Huawei ICT Competition, which includes the Practice and Innovation Competitions. With two tracks — Network and Cloud, the Practice Competition mainly examines students’ ICT knowledge, hands-on skills, and teamwork. The Innovation Competition evaluates students’ capabilities — in terms of innovation, cooperation, and development — by using cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, big data, and AI. The fifth Huawei ICT Competition has set a new participation record by attracting almost 150,000 students from over 2000 colleges and universities in more than 82 countries and regions.

The Practice Competition has two parts: theory and lab exams. Students will complete the theory exam online through iLearning, and use the Huawei eLab (Network Track) and HUAWEI CLOUD (Cloud Track) to take the lab exam. In the Innovation Competition, all participating teams will present their entries and answer judges’ questions.

Mr. Sun Gang, Director of Huawei’s Talent Ecosystem Development Department, gave a speech at the opening ceremony. He said that, by 2030, we will live in an intelligent world. New technologies require new talent, which means talent is crucial for ICT development. Huawei aims to develop ICT talent, build a robust talent ecosystem, and promote a prosperous industry by setting standards, building a talent alliance, and demonstrating the value of talent. Huawei will continue striving to provide equal access to high-quality education and achieve digital inclusion.

Li Ming, Director of UNESCO’s International Centre for Higher Education Innovation (ICHEI), also delivered a video message fully recognizing Huawei’s global ICT talent ecosystem, which he said is both attractive and cohesive. It not only attracts students from colleges and universities worldwide, but also cultivates excellent ICT talent. He hopes Huawei will continue to make great contributions to cultivating more digital talent and supporting global digital transformation.

During this year’s competition, Huawei will hold several online events. At the global summit forum, leaders from industry organizations, government officials, and university presidents will discuss education continuity following the spread of COVID-19. At the Datacom Certification global launch conference, Huawei will globally release its criteria for future Datacom talent. At the teaching seminar, professors will share their latest practices and views on ICT talent cultivation.

The participants of this competition hail from around the world, and are students in Huawei ICT Academies and higher education institutions that have joined the Huawei ICT Academy program. Through the competition, Huawei aims to provide students with a platform to compete and exchange ideas, enhance their ICT knowledge and practical skills, and raise their innovation awareness. In addition, the competition also serves as a platform that facilitates communication between international talent; as well as collaboration between governmental organizations, higher education institutions, training agencies, and enterprises; thereby promoting the education, growth, and employment of ICT talent and building a healthy ICT talent ecosystem.

Since the launch of the Daraz Humqadam program in May, which invited SMEs to set up their shops on the leading ecommerce platform to sell online in Pakistan,Daraz has provided business and financial support to 45,000 businesses across the country and enabled 5,514 SMEs to transition towards digital operations by setting up their stores on the platform.

Shifting towards digital operations has held significant traction for businesses in Pakistan since the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic in Pakistan and the following restrictions on movement that. During this period, Daraz has received 35,000 registrations from SMEs. The Humqadam program was launched o empower the SME sector and facilitate businesses’ transition towards ecommerce operations. Investing nearly PKR 80 million, Daraz waived the commission fee for these businesses for two months and has also provided them with dedicated one-on-one support and access to free business consultation as well as education and training through Daraz University. 

SMEs from 88 cities across the country such as Toba Tek Singh, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Swat and Rahim Yar Khan signed up for the program and are now actively operating on Daraz. More than 1,600 businesses from Karachi and nearly 1500 from Lahore have transitioned to the ecommerce platform. Together, these businesses are contributing almost 300,000 products to the marketplace’s vast assortment across a range of categories including groceries, health and beauty, home appliances, fashion, mobiles and tablets, motors and jewellery. 

“The Humqadam program was launched to support businesses and protect livelihoods during a difficult and uncertain economic period. We are very proud of the impact that we have been able to create and will continue to direct our efforts towards the empowerment of small businesses in Pakistan,” said Ehsan Saya, Managing Director Daraz Pakistan. 

The Humqamdam program stands in line with Daraz’ mission to make it easy to do business in the digital age. The platform has a growing community of 50,000 sellers and is dedicated to providing opportunities for growth for its new and existing sellers in the world of online Shopping in Pakistan.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) TECNO Mobiles has finally activated its “TECNO 100 Million Discount Offer” to double your Eid happiness. This CSR activity unveiled by TECNO is full of surprises. The Promotional Ambassador of this campaign is Alizeh Shah, a celebrated television celebrity of Pakistan. The stirring campaign includes various discount offers, cash back offers, online lucky draws and many more exciting gift hampers.

TECNO’s latest budget-friendly smartphones: Camon12 Air, Spark 4,  and Spark 4 lite would also be available on exclusive discount prices during this Ramadan activity.

To avail these exclusive discounts all you have to do is to purchase TECNO handset and get a cashback of Rs. 1000 starting from May 16^th till 24^th. After making the purchase you would be required to give your details in the promotional flyer to get an entry ticket for the Online Lucky Draw, giving you a chance to win exciting surprises like, motorcycles, LED TV, latest Camon 15 Pro and Pouvoir 4, washing machines, microwaves and many more!

The Lucky Draw would be Live Streamed on TECNO’s official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TecnoMobilePakistan.The buyers could stay tuned with the official page to get updates on the lucky draw. The Lucky Draw would have two grand separate Rounds.

The 1^st Round would go Live on 19th May, 2020 at 7p.m. in the evening and the 2^nd Round on 23^rd May, 2020 at 7p.m. If you lose in the first round you can re-participate in the second. However, if you win in the first round you cannot participate again.

Winners would be announced publicly trough their unique IMEI numbers Live on the Facebook web. Results would be made public for the viewers. Customers can dial *#06# to retrieve their IMEI number. If you happen to win the Lucky Draw you would be required to provide your CNIC, Name, Box and phone’s IMEI picture details to the brands’ official account. From there, TECNO’s social media team would guide you to claim your rewards.

TECNO has always kept its legacy of being known as the people’s brand. With this bounteous Ramadan campaign, the brand has again elevated itself in the mobile phone industry. With advanced innovation and a combination of innovative CSR activities TECNO is all set to reach new heights of success in the future.

 

 

 

8.6% increase in Huawei’s enterprise business in 2019

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Huawei has confirmed steady growth in the enterprise market, achieving global sales revenue of USD12.8 billion—up 8.6% year-on-year. Huawei’s enterprise business has become one of the key drivers of the company’s overall expansion. In the Middle East specifically, the company’s enterprise business group achieved exceptional results with sales revenue growing 24% year-on-year, making the region one of the top performers for Huawei globally.

As of 2019, more than 700 cities and 228 Fortune Global 500 companies have chosen Huawei as their digital transformation partner. In addition, Huawei’s enterprise business has a network of more than 28,000 partners worldwide, which contribute up to 86% of the global revenue of the business group. According to Huawei, the trust of these partners and customers has been essential to the company’s success, and Huawei will continue to partner with governments and enterprises to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected intelligent world.

Through ongoing R&D and investment in new ICT technologies such as 5G, AI, and cloud, today Huawei fully leverages the collaborative advantages of new technologies to accelerate product innovation, industry digitization, and intelligent development. Moreover, the principle of “Being Integrated” has been well adopted in its enterprise business, so that success is shared with partners through fair, transparent, and simple partner policies.

Huawei also invested 15.3% of its 2019 revenue – or approximately USD18.8 billion – back into R&D in line with its long-term investment approach and commitment to provide technology innovations. Its total R&D spend over the past decade now exceeds USD$85.9 billion.

During 2019, Huawei leveraged the synergy among cloud, AI, and 5G to provide public cloud services and hybrid cloud solutions that are stable, reliable and sustainable. HUAWEI CLOUD has launched more than 200 cloud services and 190 solutions, while more than 3 million enterprise users and developers currently use HUAWEI CLOUD to develop products and solutions.

Using Cloud as the base, Huawei has launched Huawei Horizon Digital Platform by integrating new ICT technologies including IoT, AI, big data, video, converged communications, and GIS to build a foundation for the future digital world. According to leading independent market research firm Dell’Oro Group, Huawei ranked No. 1 in the share of the global Wi-Fi 6 indoor AP market, excluding North America between the third quarters of 2018 and 2019, through its provision of quality services for customers from various sectors such as education, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing.

In addition, in 2019, Huawei launched Cloud Engine 16800, the industry’s first data center switch built for the AI era, which has been commercially deployed in more than 150 enterprise data centers around the world. The three OptiXs, namely OptiXtrans, OptiXaccess, and OptiXstar, have been adopted by over 3,800 companies across 158 countries and regions. According to a Gartner’s report released in September 2019, Huawei’s storage products took up the Leaders’ zone of the Magic Quadrant. Huawei also released two flagship solutions for the enterprise market – HiCampus and HiDC– by relying on its cutting edge technologies in 5G, optical transmission, Internet Protocol (IP) networking, and AI technologies and making collaborative innovation across technological domains.

Huawei has a wealth of experience in helping governments and enterprises go digital. In areas such as smart city, campus, transportation, energy, manufacturing, and education, Huawei works with global partners to roll out innovative solutions and business models to create new value.

As of 2019, Huawei has partnered with more than 4,200 service providers serving over 50,000 customers around the world. The company has participated in smart city projects in more than 200 cities across over 40 countries and regions, as well as assisting more than 1,000 financial institutions with digital transformation in terms of inclusive finance, data-driven service innovation, and open banking. Huawei serves more than 170 urban rail lines in over 70 cities worldwide, striving to build integrated transportation systems for global cities. Building on the experience gained from its own digital transformation, Huawei has successfully built intelligent campuses for more than 300 customers. Through innovative ICT technologies, Huawei helps various sectors including manufacturing and energy reshape their manufacturing and value chains while boosting upgrade of their intelligent systems.

As part of powering enterprise partners and building a prosperous ecosystem, Huawei has established 13 Open Labs worldwide to focus on the enterprise market. At these Open Labs, partners receive support on the joint innovation of solutions, marketing, talent cultivation, finance, supply chains, and IT systems to continuously improve their capabilities and drive their transformation for shared success. Committed to sharing its experience, technology, and talent cultivation standards, Huawei has worked with a huge number of educational authorities, universities, and other ecosystem players from around the world to build an open and favorable ecosystem to cultivate ICT talents and drive industry digitization.

All financial statements in the 2019 Annual Report were independently audited by KPMG, an international Big Four accounting firm. To download the 2019 Annual Report, visit www.huawei.com/en/press-events/annual-report/2019

Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) and Gnowbe to offer free Online COVID-19 ‘Infection Prevention & Control’ course in Pakistan

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) PSDF and international platform Gnowbe have partnered to offer a Free online course “Stay Protected with Infection Control and Prevention 101 Program” for the general public in Pakistan to understand the nature of the virus and its transmission, and protect themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The free 30-minute course offered by Singapore’s leading Ngee Ann Polytechnic, uses Gnowbe’s e- learning platform to provide necessary information that can help curtail the rapid spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19As part of the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations. PSDF has created an Urdu version of the course to make it accessible to the broader public.

While the course is open and free to the general public, it is especially recommended for individuals working on the frontline like thePrime Minister’s Tiger Force, field volunteers providing food and critical services, bank employees, law enforcement officers and people living in close quarters where the disease has the highest chances of spreading.

To impart necessary knowledge and information in an engaging manner, the course utilizes a combination of informative videos, tutorials and quizzes to educate the public. Course material comprises of two main topics: Infection Transmission (that details the chain of infection and transmission of diseases) and Infection Prevention (that consists of sessions on prevention by hand hygiene and wearing Personal Protective Equipment). Those who complete the course successfully will receive an international certification from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Health Sciences, Singapore.

Speaking on the partnership with Gnowbe, Mr. Jawad Khan, CEO PSDF commented, “we are delighted to be partnering with a forward-thinking global organization to offer this course in Pakistan at this crucial time. PSDF is playing its part by leading from the front in providing the necessary information on prevention and control on the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In Singapore, Gnowbe has already been using the platform to provide the course ‘Infection Control and Prevention 101’ free of charge to the general public in 8 languages including Mandarin, Arabic, Malay and German. The partnership with PSDF will add Urdu to the menu as well.

 

New Privacy Setting for Groups

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, coworkers, classmates and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience. Today, we’re introducing a new privacy setting and invite system to help you decide who can add you to groups.

To enable it, go to Settings in your app, then tap Account > Privacy > Groups and select one of three options: “Everyone,” “My Contacts,” or “My Contacts Except.” “My Contacts” means only users you have in your address book can add you to groups and “My Contacts Except” provides additional control for who among your contacts can add you to a group. 

In those cases, an admin who can’t add you to a group will be prompted to send a private invite through an individual chat, giving you the choice of joining the group. You’ll have three days to accept the invite before it expires. 

With these new features, users will have more control over the group messages they receive. These new privacy settings will begin rolling out to some users starting today and will be available worldwide in the coming days to those using the latest version of WhatsApp.

“With WhatsApp increasing playing an integral part in the way communities now connect, communicate and even perform their professional functions, it is becoming essential that consumers privacy and safety concerns are taken more seriously. Developing new ways to increase consumers’ control is a positive step. We appreciate WhatsApp’s efforts to give agency to it’s consumers and hope that as it’s influence grows, WhatsApp would continue to recognize it’s responsibilities and would continue to empower consumers with tools that help them define their own information experience in an active and an informed manner. “-Sadaf Khan, Director, Media Matters for Democracy.

 

Stay Alert! Now it’s time to act. FIA is reportedly taken some serious steps by arresting people involved in the registration of mobiles in Pakistan on fake Identity and changing Mobile IMEIs. They have also warned all those people found guilty whether shopkeepers or customers found involved in the illegal mobile registration that they will face imprisonment, fine or both- This punishments could be upto 07 imprisonment, ten million rupees fine or both.

Accordinging to sources, it has been observed that many mobile phone sellers in Pakistan have recently started mobile registration through fake or stolen identity of International travelers to bypass PTA DIRBS system. They access the passport information of expatriate from travel agents and use them to register the phones of customers in Pakistan by charging anywhere from Rs2000 to 5000 per handset.

This criminal and immoral act of most mobile sellers has been reported by PTA to FIA and the issue was also highlighted by different segments of the society specially in a senate subcommittee meeting on IT & Telecom. FIA has reportedly arrested some people in this connection and are now investigating the matter further. It is very likely that more arrest will follow of shopkeepers and maybe this scope of extended to customers who have used stolen identity for registration of the mobile devices.

A senior lawyer familiar with such issues told our reporter that according to the PECA rules, if someone is caught misusing the credentials of international traveler for mobile registration & reprogramming of IMEI can be imprisoned for upto 07 years, fined or even both as it falls under the definition of  Criminal Act.

Any person who is found guilty and damages an information system will be punished according to PECA rules. For reader’s information, “damage to an information system” means any unauthorized change in the ordinary working of an information system that impairs its performance, access, output or change in location whether temporary or permanent and with or without causing any change in the system.

The various Offences and Punishments that do apply as per PECA rules under the Criminal Act that relates to registration of mobile phones under stolen Identity of international travelers or changing/Duplicating IMEI are:

• Unauthorized copying or transmission of critical infrastructure data.-Whoever wit dishonest intention and without authorization copies or otherwise transmits or causes to be transmitted any critical infrastructure data shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine which may extend to five million rupees or with both.
• Interference with critical infrastructure information system or data.-Whoever with  dishonest  intention  interferes  with  or  damages,  or  causes to be interfered with or damaged, any part or whole of a critical information system, or data, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to seven years or with fine which may extend to ten million rupees or with both.

The complete details of the PECA Rules can be downloaded from the following http://www.na.gov.pk/uploads/documents/1472635250_246.pdf

Files motion for summary judgment in its court case to accelerate process to halt illegal action against the company

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Huawei today filed a motion for summary judgment as part of the process to challenge the constitutionality of Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (2019 NDAA). It also called on the U.S. government to halt its state-sanctioned campaign against Huawei because it will not deliver cybersecurity.

Banning Huawei using cybersecurity as an excuse “will do nothing to make networks more secure. They provide a false sense of security, and distract attention from the real challenges we face,” said Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer. “Politicians in the U.S. are using the strength of an entire nation to come after a private company,” Song noted. “This is not normal. Almost never seen in history.”

“The U.S. government has provided no evidence to show that Huawei is a security threat. There is no gun, no smoke. Only speculation,” Song added.

In the complaint, Huawei argues that Section 889 of the 2019 NDAA singles out Huawei by name and not only bars U.S. government agencies from buying Huawei equipment and services, but also bars them from contracting with or awarding grants or loans to third parties who buy Huawei equipment or services—even if there is no impact or connection to the U.S. government.

Song also addressed the addition of Huawei to the “Entity List” by the U.S. Commerce Department two weeks ago. “This sets a dangerous precedent. Today it’s telecoms and Huawei. Tomorrow it could be your industry, your company, your consumers,” he said. 

“The judicial system is the last line of defense for justice. Huawei has confidence in the independence and integrity of the U.S. judicial system. We hope that mistakes in the NDAA can be corrected by the court,” Song added.

Glen Nager, Huawei’s lead counsel for the case, said Section 889 of the 2019 NDAAviolates the Bill of Attainder, Due Process, and Vesting Clauses of the United States Constitution. Thus the case is purely “a matter of law” as there are no facts at issue, thereby justifying the motion for a summary judgement to speed up the process.

Huawei believes that U.S. suppression of Huawei will not help make networks more secure. Huawei expects the U.S. to take the right approach and adopt honest and effective measures to enhance cybersecurity for everyone, if the U.S. government’s real goal is security.

In line with a court scheduling order, a hearing on the motion is set for Sept. 19.

Recent restrictions based on ungrounded allegations have been imposed on Huawei in order to disrupt business operations: Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Huawei

Lahore –  In his keynote remarks delivered yesterday at the Potsdam Conference on National Cybersecurity in Berlin, Germany, Ken Hu, Deputy Chairman, Huawei said that in recent days, restrictions, based on ungrounded allegations, have been imposed on Huawei in order to disrupt our business operations. We believe this behavior is totally unjustified.

Ken highlighted that in Europe, approximately three-quarters of smartphone users rely on an Android-based phone. Huawei accounts roughly for 20% of this market. Such reckless decisions can cause a great deal of harm to consumers and businesses in Europe.

This sets a dangerous precedent. It goes against the values of the international business community, cuts off the global supply chain and disrupts fair competition in the market. This could happen to any other industry and company in the future if we don’t jointly confront these issues.

I am honored to speak at this beautiful campus of the University of Potsdam. When I arrived earlier, I was told that we are at a historic site where the Berlin Wall once stood. This reminded me of the fact that we don’t want to see another wall and we don’t want to go through another painful experience.  Equally, we don’t want to build a new wall in terms of trade, we don’t want to build a new wall in terms of technology either. We need an integrated global ecosystem which can help us to promote faster technological innovation and stronger economic growth. Ultimately, it is what we have to rely on in order to maintain prosperity for human society.