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Huawei has signed a global commitment to join the International Telecommunication Union's Partner2Connect digital alliance. The company believes this will bring connectivity to about 120 million people in remote areas in more than 80 countries by 2025.

Liang Hua, chairman of Huawei, announced the decision at the company's 2022 Sustainability Forum named Connectivity+: Innovate for Impact. The forum explored how ICT innovation could unleash the business and social value of connectivity and drive sustainability in the digital economy era (also emphasised by Huawei at the recent AfricaCom 2022).

In his keynote address, Liang stressed that access to a stable network was a basic requirement as well as a right in the digital age. For many who remain unconnected, access to reliable connectivity would mark the first step towards transforming their lives.

"Connectivity will be more than just a tool for convenient communications," he said. "Together with digital technologies like cloud and AI, connectivity will help bring everyone into the digital world, and provide them with access to more information and skills, better services, and wider business opportunities. This will, in turn, drive further social and economic development," Liang noted.

Speakers at the event included senior leaders from the ITU and United Nations, telecom ministers and regulators in Cambodia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Also present were business leaders, partners, experts and customers from China, South Africa, Belgium and Germany.

Siddharth Chatterjee, United Nations resident coordinator in China, called for partnerships between policymakers, the private sector, academia and civil society to close "the sobering reality" of a digital divide which excluded a third of the global population.

"Our dynamic world urgently needs improved digital cooperation to capitalise on the transformational potential of technology to create new jobs, boost financial inclusion, close the gender gap, spur a green recovery and redesign our world to be more prosperous and inclusive. Now is the time to act," he said.

ITU deputy secretary-general, Malcolm Johnson stated, "It is clear connectivity alone is not enough. It must be affordable, the content must be relevant and in the local language, and users must have the skills to make best use of it." He thanked Huawei for their support of the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, and for their announced pledges in the key areas of rural connectivity and digital skills.

Huawei notes how in Africa, the company has laid more than 250,000 kilometers of optical fibre, enabling 30 million households to access high-speed broadband.