COVID-19: Countries need ICT to reopen economies – Huawei

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, Guo Ping, has said countries needed to apply 5G technologies to reopen economies which were closed down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. He made this submission while delivering a keynote speech titled “5G in a post-pandemic world: Countdown to the digital blastoff” at a GSMA Thrive event held virtually on […]

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, Guo Ping, has said countries needed to apply 5G technologies to reopen economies which were closed down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

He made this submission while delivering a keynote speech titled “5G in a post-pandemic world: Countdown to the digital blastoff” at a GSMA Thrive event held virtually on June 30.

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In this speech, Ping discussed the social value of ICT in combating COVID-19, as well as the practices and prospects of applying 5G in digital transformation for industries.

He said: “With the help of 5G, industries are going digital at a faster pace.”

GSMA Thrive is an online event, hosted by GSMA, which attracts the attention of many industry players and other online viewers.

Ping noted that GSMA and telecom carriers worldwide played a vital role in continuously unleashing the power of connectivity, helping people live healthily, and helping industries and society at large continuously recover since the outbreak of COVID-19.

He assured that Huawei will continuously support open and collaborative standards and industry organisations in their efforts to safeguard a unified global communications industry.

According to him, GSMA proposed that 5G will become the backbone for economic recovery in some regions, adding that: “We could not agree more and will work tirelessly to make this a reality.”

South Korea’s coronavirus battle

Ping said South Korea is a typical example of countries that have taken advantage of ICT in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

“South Korea has done an excellent job in containing the spread of the coronavirus and reopening the economy.

“The country has set a record of developing one million 5G users within 69 days.

“I should say ICT infrastructure in South Korea is highly developed, giving the country a solid foundation upon which to fight the pandemic.

“To a great extent, South Korea’s success in containing the virus can be attributed to the efficient use of ICT,” he explained.

Ping said the South Korean government had also encouraged the use of 5G-based contactless applications like Untact in a bid to help reopen the economy.

Despite the extreme difficulties caused by the pandemic, South Korea saw its Q1 GDP rise by 1.3% YoY.

During the process, its mobile industry, especially 5G, developed very rapidly.

‘5G is like electricity’

While explaining the importance of 5G technologies, the Huawei boss said: “In my opinion, 5G today is like electricity over 100 years ago.

“Over the last three to four decades, the mobile industry has basically solved the problem of connecting people.

“Today, 5G is developing very rapidly.

“There are already 81 commercial 5G networks worldwide, supporting 72% of the world’s GDP.

“Like electricity 100 years ago, ICT is extending to every industry, becoming a key enabler of social development,” he posited.

He said, with the help of 5G, industries were going digital at a faster pace.

Ping assured that Huawei would continue to work with partners on industry applications to create value.

“We will leverage our capabilities in domains like networks, cloud, AI, and devices to help our customers unleash the potential of 5G, generating the first round of dividends from major 5G applications,” he added.