गाउँको दुरदराजदेखि काठमाडौंको सिंहदरबारसम्म

Kathmandu, Huawei hosted the opening ceremony for this year’s Seeds for the Future – its global flagship CSR program for undergraduate level students from all ICT-related disciplines in Nepal at an event held in Kathmandu today. This year marks the first year that Huawei has introduced the program in Nepal.

Seeds for the Future was first launched in 2008 in Thailand. Since then over 9,000 students from 130 countries and regions have participated in the program.

Between Oct 6 and Nov 7, Huawei received 136 applications from all over Nepal on its application portal seedsnepal.com which was open to all undergraduate students. After a competitive selection process, the Seeds for the Future Selection Committee composed of distinguished ICT professors has selected 20 undergraduate students, including 4 from outside the Kathmandu valley, who will take part in the 8-day online training, visit a Huawei-built 4G base station in Ghandruk and attend classes from industry experts. They will also get a chance to participate in the Tech4Good global competition where they can pitch their idea on leveraging technology to solve social and/or environmental problems and win prizes up to 20000 USD.

The guest of honor for the opening ceremony was Hon’ble State Minister, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Bodhmaya Kumari Yadav. Speaking at the program, she insisted that all Nepalis in rural and remote areas should have access to digital connectivity. She further added that, digital connectivity has become imperative for the education sector. “Digital literacy and the development of digital talents are equally important for digital development”, she said. She also thanked Huawei for giving students from Nepal an opportunity to learn new things from the Seeds for the Future program, to forge friendships with international peers and to connect with an international company like Huawei.

At the event, Huawei Asia Pacific Vice President Jay Chen delivered his welcome remarks.

Speaking about Huawei’s plans to invest in digital talent development in the region, he mentioned that over the next 5 years, Huawei has already committed to invest an additional $50 million USD to develop 500 thousand ICT talents in the Asia Pacific region alone, and that this would be achieved through several digital talent development programs including Seeds for the future. Seeds for the Future Nepal is part of Huawei’s larger strategy to invest in digital talent cultivation across the region.

The Selection Committee members who have been involved with the program since the very beginning also shared their praises for the program and Huawei. Prof. Dr. Shashidhar Ram Joshi, Dean of TU Institute of Engineering, went into great detail about the selection process and mentioned how it was challenging to shortlist the final 20 students from the application pool. He expressed his gratitude towards Huawei for initiating Seeds for the Future and the Tech4Good global competition. “Huawei did a really good thing with the Tech4Good Global Competition announcement. This opportunity would be really interesting for those students who want to start their own business”, he said.

Prof. Timila Yami Thapa, who was also in the selection committee, expressed great joy at Huawei including women in such talent development programs. “This message is very good for Nepal. Huawei’s Women in Tech initiatives across the world are exemplary”, she said.

One of the student representatives from the 20 finalists, Ms. Yunika Bajracharya, shared her experience of the first class of the Seeds for the Future program which took place on the afternoon of Nov 29. She thanked Huawei for “bringing everyone together with such an amazing initiative. Students are feeling great to be a part of such a dynamic group and to meet with like-minded students who are all equally passionate about technology.”

CEO of Huawei Nepal, Mr. William Zhang congratulated the finalists in his closing remarks and thanked the selection committee for their continuous support to the program. He also reiterated Huawei’s commitments to develop 10,000 ICT talents in the next 5 years in Nepal and hoped for more female participation in the next edition of Seeds for the Future.