By Shunli Wang

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is at the helm of some of the most fascinating projects and developments in the Middle East — and indeed, the world. Driven by Vision 2030, the country is undergoing widespread changes, from digitizing government operations to building Giga-projects and smart cities.

Advanced digital infrastructure is recognized by Saudi’s leadership as a foundational element for many of these projects. Overall spending on ICT solutions in Saudi Arabia was expected to reach up to $32.9 billion last year alone, according to IDC estimates.

At the start of 2022, I am particularly inspired by the level of tech talent present within the Kingdom today. The choice of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time to host the recent finale of the annual Huawei Middle East ICT Competition reflects the great talent potential we see in the market. In its latest cycle, the competition finale welcomed the participation of 13 teams from 10 countries, with 453 local colleges and universities in the region involved in the competition overall.

Students from various institutions in Saudi Arabia demonstrated not just high technical capabilities, but also the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that drives real socio-economic development.

We saw excellent results from Saudi competition participants, with one of the finalist teams from Saudi Arabia taking home the ‘Outstanding Performance’ award. Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University as well as the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) also won the ‘Excellent Academy’ awards. Additionally, Dr. Assim Alyahya from King Saud University took home the ‘Excellent Tutor’ prize.

Initiatives like the Huawei ICT Competition are testament to the importance of public-private collaboration in nurturing tech talent. The support from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and partner universities was essential to the success of this year’s competition, helping to bridge the connection between classroom theory and real-world applications.

Moreover, one of the clear outtakes of this year’s competition is that Saudi Arabia has emerged as a powerhouse of digital innovation. Advanced technologies like AI, IoT, cloud, and robotics are finding new applications in Saudi Arabia every day. All this adds to what is an important period for the Kingdom’s economic and social transformation.

Saudi Arabia will soon host the mega tech event, LEAP, which is expected to set the digital agenda for the Kingdom and the region in the years to come. Additionally, the country’s giga projects such as NEOM, Qiddiya, and the Red Sea development will all hit key milestones this year, in part through their embrace of cutting-edge digital solutions.

Again, these achievements will all require a corresponding investment in ICT talent development. Tao Zhan, director of UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) and speaker at the finals of the Huawei Middle East ICT Competition in Riyadh, confirmed this recently by noting how cultivating enough ICT talent remains a “global priority” that requires even greater partnerships between the public and private sectors.

Developing ICT talent requires us to spark an interest in young people to participate in the sector, and nurture an innovation mindset that embraces creativity and forward-thinking as critical skills. It takes imagination to develop new technologies and advanced solutions, after all. We must encourage talented young people to think big to achieve significant breakthroughs.

Local talent must ultimately be equipped with the skills, knowledge, and experience to become the future leaders of the sector. They will then be in a better position to contribute to the continued development of the Kingdom’s technology ecosystem, and in turn the realization of goals within the Vision 2030 strategy.

— The writer Is vice president of Huawei Middle East