ooredooKUWAIT: Senior executives from Ooredoo Kuwait, a member of the international Ooredoo Group, and leading global ICT solutions provider Huawei recently concluded the companies' first Annual Strategy Summit in China with the aim to extend cooperation in developing new technology platforms as well as supporting local community initiatives in Kuwait, aligned with the partnership between Ooredoo group and Huawei.

The summit was the first of its kind since Ooredoo Kuwait and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this spring to hold a bilateral strategy summit on a yearly basis. During the event, top management from both companies participated in a series of visits to R&D centers and solution exhibitions in Shenzhen and Shanghai, multiple roundtables and executive business dinners, under the theme of "Transform Together, Succeed Together".

Taking place at the global headquarters of Huawei in the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Shanghai in China, the three-day summit was attended by leaders such as Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Thani, CEO of Ooredoo Kuwait, Hani ElKukhun, COO of Ooredoo Kuwait, Hendrik Vorster, CTO of Ooredoo Kuwait, as well as management team from Ooredoo Kuwait, while from Huawei Steven Yi, President of Region management Department with other management executives, along with Huawei- Ooredoo Kuwait Account team lead by Anas Mahaftha.

During the summit, the companies signed two new memorandum of understanding as a means to consolidate their global partnership on strategic cooperation as well as showcase the learnings from Ooredoo Kuwait's latest Future Mode of Operation (FMO) project, involving latest managed IT and Network operations solutions from Huawei. The FMO project was awarded to Huawei in July 2015 and has continued to be implemented successfully over recent months.

"Choosing Huawei as our partner was the right choice," says Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Thani, CEO of Ooredoo Kuwait. "This summit made us more confident and eager to see broader and deeper cooperation with Huawei."

"As a longstanding partner of Ooredoo, we recognize the significant value that comes from sharing best practices and bringing together minds from around the world to address opportunities specific to local markets," says Steven Yi, President of Region management Department at Huawei. "This summit in particular will continue to provide a forum for Ooredoo and Huawei to succeed together in building a better connected Kuwait and delivering the value of innovation to local customers."

This year's summit topics included how to better leverage the power of Big Data to understand customers and drive more personalized services for them. Customer experience management also stood out as a prominent topic, with the two companies reviewing new solutions for measuring and then delivering improvements in user satisfaction & loyalty. The companies further examined the future of mobile video platforms as users in Kuwait increasingly look for rich, high-definition multimedia services for entertainment and working on the go.

Outside of the technology area, Ooredoo Kuwait and Huawei have also agreed to work closer in developing and supporting corporate social responsibility campaign within Kuwait and across the region. In recent years Ooredoo and Huawei have partnered in the development of Ooredoo's mobile broadband capabilities including the commercial launch of LTE services in Kuwait and Radio Modernization projects. Ooredoo and Huawei have since expanded their relationship to include plans on IP transmission networks modernization, Core network virtualization, and LTE service expansion.