KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 26

Chinese mulitinational technology corporation Huawei has successfully concluded the programme 'Seeds for the Future' for this year, that happened for the first time in Nepal.

The programme, which is Huawei's global flagship CSR programme intended for undergraduate level students in Nepal, saw a participation of 19 students from eight different universities and 13 educational institutions.

Guest of Honour Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Devendra Paudel, awarded a certificate of completion to all the students.

The application for the programme began on October 6 and remained open till November 7. Of the 136 applications received, the Selection Committee selected 19 undergraduate students, including four from outside the Kathmandu valley, who took part in the 8-day online training with international peers, participated in the Tech4good project, visited a Huawei-built 4G base station in Ghandruk and attended classes from industry experts from DishHome and Ncell.

The students will also get a chance to participate in the Tech4Good global competition where they can pitch their idea on leveraging technology to solve social and/or environmental problems and win prizes up to USD 20,000.

This programme was launched in 2008 in Thailand and has since then received a participation of over 9,000 students from 130 countries and regions.

Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, who was the other guest of honour, congratulated the students on successful completion of the training and highlighted that in order to benefit more people in the Asia-Pacific region, governments should adhere to the principles of innovation-driven development, ignite the new engine of the digital economy, and enable the achievements of digital technologies.

Minister Paudel thanked Huawei for its work in the ICT sector in Nepal and in the development of Nepali students in the ICT sector.

'I hope that Huawei, which has been progressing globally in the ICT sector, can work to make Nepali youth more tech-friendly,' he said.

The students shared their Tech4Good projects – 2 novel mobile applications - at the event. Ankit Khanal, a student, shared his project Growers' Point which aims to provide farmers direct access to consumers without having to rely on middlemen.

Similarly, another student Yunika Bajracharya shared her project Saathi which tries to help type-I diabetes patients keep track of their glucometer readings and provide alerts for insulin dosage.