The rapid deployment of 5G across the Asia Pacific is paving the way for new innovations in vertical industries.
At the same time, continued ICT investment and cooperation is necessary to accelerate industry digital transformation, and develop the local partner ecosystems necessary for inspiring new value and accelerating industry 4.0.
This was a key consensus among participants in the APAC 5G Industry Forum (5GIF) held virtually earlier this week.
The forum, hosted by GSMA and Huawei Technologies, saw over 800 participants from over 30 countries representing governments, telecom operators, academia, ICT and other vertical industry players from the Asia Pacific region.
"There are still have many challenges to overcome, 5G requires not only innovators, but also brave practitioners to drive the development. In Thailand, Siriraj Hospital is a good example, they are facing many difficulties to transform traditional processes, but the hospital has finally started to use 5G services for remote patient monitoring, connected ambulances, and unmanned medicine vehicles to provide higher quality of medication service to their patients," said Dennis Xiao, President of Huawei Technologies Asia Pacific Region.
Dustin Kehoe, APAC & ME Service Director of Global Data, said in that more than 15,000 ASEAN enterprises are spending over $246 billion in their current ICT transformation, with industries starting to use 5G in manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, and other campus-based networks.
“ASEAN countries are very committed to enlarge in large industrial manpower through variety skill-sets and technologies talent training,” he said.
This year’s forum covered two discussion panels, with speakers comprising academics, consultants, government and telecom operators from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand discussing their views on industry standards, public policies and regulation.