Huawei kicks off Seeds for the Future 2023 for global university students

University talents selected for Huawei’s Seeds for the Future 2023 with Higher Education State Minister Dr. Suren Raghavan, Additional Secretary Development Rohitha Uduwawala, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Tao Guangyao, Huawei Public Affairs Director Christophe Lee and Huawei Sri Lanka Human Resources Department Director Chen Mengyuan

The eighth ‘Seeds for the Future’ programme began in Sri Lanka on September 13, 2023, with four outstanding students from three state universities in Sri Lanka participating this year. 
The students are from the universities of Jaffna, Kelaniya and Colombo. The ceremony was held at the Huawei Sri Lanka local office in Colombo 1, with the participation of Higher Education Minister Dr. Suren Raghavan as the chief guest. 

During the launch ceremony, Dr. Raghavan said, “Seeing the young talents who come from areas where the 30-year civil war was aggravated and now these opportunities are open for them and they getting selected to such prominent programme is something that I am personally happy about.”

While putting his faith in the four seeds who embarked on an ICT learning journey to China, he emphasised that Huawei is sowing these seeds for the future using the fine tone and he anticipates that Huawei is actively investing in undergraduates Huawei to be involved in the state digitalisation programme.  “Huawei’s involvement in upskilling local talent has been remarkable since 2016 and it is now time for us to extend our invitation to Huawei to collaborate with the government’s digitalisation plan. Aside from that, I am overjoyed to be here and witness these students’ achievements. It should be noted that there are a large number of students who are worried that they were not selected to participate in the golden opportunity,” he said. 

This year’s Seeds for the Future launch ceremony was significant because Huawei invited two young Maldivians to collaborate with four young Sri Lankan students to show the Asia Pacific region and the world the talents that the two countries possess.
Meanwhile, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Tao Guangyao shared his thoughts on the programme and extended his messages to the seeds, saying, “We, at Huawei, are always committed to upskilling and improving the competitiveness of university youth and more young talent means a brighter future for Sri Lanka, which makes me very happy. 

What I would like to ask students who are about to embark on their journey to China is to view the opportunity to visit Huawei University, R&D base and other significant places related to Huawei as a golden opportunity. Visit the locations to gain valuable knowledge, then return to Sri Lanka to put that knowledge to use in paving the way for Sri Lanka’s digital future.”
He also said Huawei understands the importance of developing young talent to shape the future. As a result, we are eager to collaborate with academia and industry to bring digital to every person, home and organisation in order to create a fully-connected, intelligent world.

This year, the Seeds for the Future programme provided an eight-day intensive training session, including cutting-edge ICT technologies, scientific and technological leadership, discussions on global topics and ‘Tech4Good’ group projects. Through learning and mutual exchange, participants gained better understanding of 5G, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, build more strengths for future growth and improve their competitiveness in the 
job market.