Analysis

Huawei launches ICT education programme in CEE

Despite concerns over security threats, Chinese tech giant Huawei is launching an education programme in Central and Eastern Europe

The programme, called One Thousand Dreams, plans to train 1,000 ICT talents across 16 CEE countries (including Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia and Albania), and donate 1,000 books to university libraries and 1,000 toys to children’s hospitals in each of the 16 countries over the next five years.

“It is not enough to only have connectivity in the future digital world. Huawei wants to acquaint more people with the benefits of digital technologies, and enable them to access and use digital knowledge,” Li Jian, president of Huawei’s European Region, said during the recent 16+1 summit in Croatia. “Children and young people are the hope of the future digital world. The One Thousand Dreams is a five-year social contribution programme. Through continuous investment, Huawei hopes to improve the digital skills of the youth in CEE countries, and encourage more young people to find a passion for science and willingness to explore it.”

In January the Czech Republic’s taxation authority excluded Huawei from a public tender procedure to build a tax portal for almost 20 million euros. The decision came after the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA) warned of security threats posed by the Chinese telecoms supplier and asked 160 public and private operators to conduct an analysis of risks and act accordingly.