The Qatari team participated Sunday in an intercultural exchange event between students from 14 countries within Huawei’s Seeds for the Future (SFTF) 2024 regional finals in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

This year’s edition, running until August 17, has brought together 157 students from 14 countries across the Middle East and Central Asia.

Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan, visited the stands organised by the students introducing their own culture, traditional dress, food, sweets, coffee, tea. A traditional Kazakh tent was erected in the hall, and students were enthusiastic about introducing their own customs and traditions, like photos of wedding dresses, Bisht, different types of head gear, Ghotra, and exchanging all these gifts amongst themselves and offering them to visitors of the intercultural fair.

The Uzbekistani host organised a lunch gala with traditional music and dance, topped up with typical local food at Amity University in the centre of Tashkent. This event got the students to know each other and created a bonding between the teams prior to their entering the competition which opening ceremony is going to be held Monday at the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan.

The Qatari team is composed of 14 male and female students who describe their participation in the Huawei SFTF 2024 as a unique experience in global citizenship, digital innovation, an open-minded approach to building bridges for research, digital partnerships, start-ups.

They also share with their fellow students from the other participating countries the commitment to apply their ICT talent to make the world a better place, to help with sustainability and come with solutions and applications which would benefit humanity.

Abdulaziz al-Shahwani told Gulf Times: “We are from the Community College of Qatar and sponsored by the CRA. Our experience so far has been very good, we have been collaborating with members of other teams from other countries. The experience is amazing we met the Minister of Digital Technologies who welcomed us and briefed us about the programme. We are here for the SFTF, but we are also for the Tech for Good which consists of building an idea that will help with sustainability. I think this is going to be a great learning opportunity for all of us. We are grateful for the CRA and Huawei for allowing us to go through this experience.”