Huawei vice president calls for global consensus on technological development

Mexico City, Feb 22 (efe-epa).- Huawei Senior Vice President Catherine Chen stressed at a forum here Monday the need to reach a consensus on the appropriate use of technology worldwide.

She said a general and far-reaching agreement is needed to proceed with the unstoppable process of technological development without generating disputes and controversies.

“Due to ideological barriers efforts are being made to halt technological development, and that will only halt progress and development. So it’s very important to reach a consensus,” Chen said at the start of the online forum “Connectivity for Shared Prosperity,” an event organized by Agencia EFE (Spain’s international news agency) and Chinese technology giant Huawei.

Chen, who is also a member of Huawei’s board of directors, said a global consensus on technological development is essential for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

While mentioning perceptions about 5G as “a high-risk platform,” she said the latest generation of mobile internet connection is a technology that offers “high bandwidth, low latency and (a level of) connectivity” that will provide enhanced benefits for society.

Different stakeholders in today’s digital era are involved in establishing technology standards for managing “various risks caused by the application of technology,” Chen said, citing as examples digital security and reliable artificial intelligence.

“We’ve always supported technological progress and we are convinced the goal is always to develop society,” said the Huawei vice president, who went on to explain the solar projects the company is developing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in countries such as China, Ethiopia, Egypt and Ghana.

GSMA Latin America’s director of technology and strategic engagement, Alejandro Adamowicz, said for his part that the pandemic has brought the region “accelerated growth in digital transformation, as both companies and individuals have embraced technology.”

Adamovicz said the mobile phone industry accounted for 7 percent of the region’s gross domestic product in 2020, a year in which network traffic grew by up to 50 percent in some cases.

He added that commitments are in place to spend around $99 billion on mobile infrastructure investment in Latin America and the Caribbean over the next five years.

The International Telecommunication Union’s regional director for the Americas, Bruno Ramos, said the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the most advanced countries in the digital economy are better prepared to overcome the current global crisis.

Ramos said successful participation in the digital economy means having robust high-speed broadband services, reliable digital payment infrastructure and systems, the ability to digitize SMEs and their retail operations and legal structures for digital contracts and digital signatures, among other factors.

Experts and representatives from Latin American companies and governments are participating in the online forum organized by Agencia EFE and Huawei to discuss how the region can promote the digital economy as an engine for development. EFE-EPA

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