Zain to continue investing in talent development, digital transformation

BARCELONA: Zain Vice Chairman and Group CEO, Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi and Guo Ping, rotating CEO of Huawei, sign the MoU during MWC 2018 in Barcelona.

BARCELNONA: Zain, a leading telecommunications provider in the Middle East and Africa, vowed to further expand focus on digital transformation and talent development, through signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei Technologies. The signing took place during MWC 2018 in Barcelona in the presence of Zain Vice Chairman and Group CEO, Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi and Guo Ping, rotating CEO of Huawei.

Under the terms of the agreement, Huawei and Zain will establish a Joint Innovation Team to explore collaboration opportunities in digital transformation. Both companies are committed to combine their expertise to advance in the field of testing and deploying 5G technologies. In addition, Zain will work closely with Huawei to rollout exciting and compelling innovative solutions to enrich the enterprise market, e.g. Smart Cities and digital services. Also, the cooperation will see both entities focus on exploiting the vast opportunities in cloud services and gaming, both key growth areas for Zain.

The MoU also has an element of corporate social responsibility; Zain and Huawei will collaborate to achieve a plan for the development of youth talented workforce, a key focus area as new technologies continue to develop across the Middle East.

Bader Al-Kharafi commented, "Our goal at Zain Group is to ensure that our clients enjoy a world-class user experience and benefit from the most cutting-edge products and solutions. We believe that our strategic partnership with Huawei will help us continue to deliver outstanding services to our customers and further bolster our transformation to be a leading digital lifestyle operator."

Guo Ping added, "Once again, we are proud of our strategic partnership with Zain Group. It is vital for people and organization to have access to intelligent and agile telecommunication infrastructure in order to stay competitive in an increasingly digital world. By partnering with Zain, we hope to deliver the most technologically innovative infrastructure to the Middle East as well as develop the digital skillsets of the region's future leaders."

This is not the first instance of collaboration between Huawei and Zain. Throughout the Middle East, Huawei and Zain have been strengthening their strategic partnership across various technology initiatives. In 2016, the two companies signed a strategic agreement to enhance the efficiency of the telco networks through NFV/SDN solutions by the year 2020. In May 2017, Zain and Huawei held the fourth annual Zain-Huawei MBB Summit under the theme of "4G Evolution Towards 5G. The summit resulted in another strategic MoU between Zain and Huawei promising further collaboration in the field of 5G.