Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, Coordinator General COMSTECH, and Dr. Syed Khurshid Hasnain, Advisor COMSTECH, met with the Cyber Security and Privacy Protection team of Huawei at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, to chart out the future of the strategic collaboration.
The collaboration between COMSTECH and Huawei aims to elevate the cybersecurity proficiency of OIC nations, focusing on areas like security management, security incident response, vulnerability management, and staying abreast of emerging security technologies and requirements.
Prof Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary shared that by virtue of its mission, COMSTECH intends to use the strengths and opportunities of Huawei Technologies, a technological giant, for the benefit of the member states.
Speaking on the scale and scope of the partnership, Prof. Choudhary described the relationship as a very flexible cooperation as the leadership of Huawei Technologies was both forward-looking and willing. He expressed the intention of expanding the cooperation to have Huawei Technologies introduced, implemented and used in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture and cyber security.
COMSTECH and Huawei Technologies Pakistan recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bolster national cybersecurity awareness and fortify the capabilities of OIC member states in cybersecurity. Under the existing MoU, Huawei will collaborate with COMSTECH to host cybersecurity training based on its practices and experiences, contributing to enhanced cybersecurity awareness and capacity building for selected OIC governmental employees. Additionally, participation in influential regional cybersecurity events like GISEC and GITEX is on the agenda.
Prof Choudhary added that the OIC world is very asymmetrical with many of the member states face a huge capacity deficit in not only technological competencies but also in the understanding of policies, regulations and strategies. To that end, the COMSTECH-Huawei partnership is broad-based, with COMSTECH wanting to leverage the Huawei expertise to develop better understanding of national strategies of member states so they can have their own digital transformation policies and legislations.
Dr. Syed Khurshid Hasnain is working closely with the Huawei Pakistan team to develop a matrix of activities including workshops, national and international trainings, and implementation of some of the technologies.
