Exhibitors were visiting the robot booth at the LEAP science and technology exhibition on site.

(Photo/ Economic Daily)

Recently, the largest technology event in the Middle East, the Saudi Arabia electronics technology and information technology exhibition "Leading Edge in Advanced Products (LEAP)", was held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for the 4th session. Jointly organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) of the Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Federation of Cyber Security, Programming and Drones （SAFCSP）and other departments and institutions, the event, with the theme "Into New Worlds," attracted more than 1,800 science and technology enterprises from around the world. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Abdullah Al-Suwaha, Minister of MCIT, said that Saudi Arabia had received a total of 14.9 billion U.S. dollars in new investment in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through this session, which highlights the importance of Saudi Arabia in shaping the process of the global digital landscape.

At this year's LEAP, Chinese science and technology enterprises made a brilliant appearance with the innovative achievements of China's "smart manufacturing". Taking the exhibition as an opportunity to deepen international scientific and technological cooperation, and to promote China's strategic emerging industries to "go global", Chinese enterprises have become a bright spot in this science and technology exhibition.

Huawei is one of the strategic partners of this session of LEAP. During the event, Huawei displayed a series of technological innovations in the integration of AI and cloud computing. Huawei Cloud's Pangu model consists of a three-tier architecture of "5 foundation models + N industry models + X scenario models", which adopts a completely layered and decoupled design, allowing enterprise users to choose a suitable model based on their business needs,  so as to be adaptive for thousands of industries and quickly adjust to the ever-changing industry requirements. Huawei Cloud Stack 8.5, with the capability to provide more than 120 on-premises cloud services and 50 solutions based on specific industry scenarios, further enhances reliability and security and significantly improves database and AI engineering capabilities. In the meantime, Huawei also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Financial District Development and Management Company (KAFD DMC), with plans to implement smart city solutions to facilitate the construction of smart infrastructure and raise the operational management efficiency of KAFD. In addition, the high-tech company, in cooperation with MCIT, announced the launch of the Huawei Skills Development Center, with a goal of training 25,000 local technicians in the fields of AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and emerging digital platforms by 2030, to boost the development of digital talent in Saudi Arabia.

Lenovo announced that it will set up its Middle East and Africa regional headquarters in Riyadh and establish a new flagship retail store. On the first day of the exhibition, Lenovo held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new manufacturing base with Alat which focuses on the electronics industry and advanced industries. The global technology company said it will enhance the resilience and flexibility of its global supply chain while providing more convenient services to customers in the Middle East and Africa.

During the event, China Mobile International Limited (CMI) highlighted its one-stop digital intelligence services, showcasing its one-stop solution of "standardization, productization and platformization" to the enterprise customers, empowering customers in vertical industries such as finance, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, Internet, retail, energy, etc., and helping enterprises accomplish global connectivity and digital intelligence transformation. Before the closing of the exhibition, CMI hosted the conference on Saudi Arabia's digital development in Riyadh, at which it released the "Blue book on Digital Development of Chinese Overseas Enterprises (Saudi Arabia)", highlighting the one-stop opening package for Chinese enterprises going overseas and the major industry solutions of smart energy and smart parks in the Saudi Arabia market. Furthermore, CMI held the iSolutions-iStar Program Saudi Arabia Launch Ceremony to establish a cooperative ecological relationship with Chinese-funded and local partners and promote a win-win cooperation in the industry.

The Investment Promotion Agency of the Ministry of Commerce of China (CIPA) organized a special pavilion of Chinese innovative enterprises in this exhibition, with exhibitors covering the fields such as electronic science and technology, smart home, 5G information technology, intelligent building and energy, service robots, specialized robots, smart manufacturing technology and application, future life, smart cars and AI, displaying the achievements of China's smart innovation and development in an all-round way.

Among them, the robot manufacturer UBTECH attracted widespread attention by displaying its humanoid robot products and run-through AI education solutions. The "humanoid robot industrial application solution" launched by the company can work in collaboration with L4 unmanned logistics vehicles, unmanned forklifts, industrial mobile robots and smart manufacturing management systems, and thus is more adaptable to diversified work scenarios. A variety of UBTECH's robotic products appeared at LEAP, among which, Walker S1, an industrial humanoid robot, demonstrated for the first time in the Middle East a variety of multi-task applications such as intelligent parcel handling and SPS sorting, and the ultra-realistic humanoid robots, panda robots and other products applicable to scenarios such as welcoming and reception were also unveiled. In terms of AI education solutions, UBTECH provides solutions for elementary education, colleges and university education, vocational education, etc. and also proposes AI robot education scenarios such as scientific research, teaching, and industrial training, combined with the characteristics of a variety of intelligent robots, so as to help foster students' abilities of research, application development and operation and maintenance in the fields of AI and robotics. Currently, UBTECH is actively popularizing AI education in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries to help the cultivation of local AI and digital intelligence talents.

Other Chinese participating enterprises in the pavilion were also looking forward to taking advantage of this session of LEAP to expand cooperation opportunities and extend the brands' reach. An exhibitor from a smart wearable device company said that the share of its products exported to the Middle East had been increasing in recent years, and Saudi Arabia had now become its largest overseas market. Since developing the Saudi market usually requires the help of local agents, and LEAP is the largest technology exhibition in the Middle East with a large influence in Saudi Arabia, participating in the exhibition is conducive to increasing the opportunities for Chinese enterprises to engage with potential cooperation partners. Another exhibitor from a laptop and tablet company said that for a long time, some buyers in Saudi Arabia and even in the Middle East had tended to choose Chinese companies for OEM production. However, Chinese enterprises are no longer satisfied with this and consciously molding their overseas brand images. By participating in this exhibition, Chinese enterprises can show their brands to the local customers in a more intuitive way, which will contributes to enhancing the visibility of Chinese brands in the local market.

Changhua, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, visited the booths of some Chinese enterprises, encouraging them to actively play to their strengths, explore new opportunities for investment and business, help elevate China-Saudi Arabia scientific and technological cooperation to a new level, and serve the common interests of the two countries and peoples with scientific and technological innovation.