ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei's Ethiopia branch on Friday disclosed that more than 60 Ethiopian students have participated in its information and communications technology (ICT) competition exam for 2022/2023, which aims to develop Ethiopia's ICT talent and innovation ecosystem.

Huawei's ICT Competition is a talent program developed by Huawei for global university students, which promotes the healthy development of the ICT talent ecosystem and supports the integration of industry and education, Huawei Ethiopia said in a statement Friday.

The 2022-2023 annual Huawei ICT Competition was held Wednesday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and was attended by 63 students from more than 30 government universities and private colleges. Students from the computer engineering, computer science, software engineering, communication engineering, and ICT departments competed in the 5th round annual national competition, Huawei said.

More than 1,300 students took the preliminary exam online on Dec. 19, and only 63 of the participants have advanced to the next national level. These students competed in the national competition, and 15 of them passed the exam, who will compete in the regional final competition, which will include students from more than 20 countries, it said.

The 2021/2022 Huawei ICT global final competition winners were announced last month, in the presence of senior Ethiopian government officials from the country's ministry of education.

The Huawei ICT Competition targeted students in Huawei ICT academies and higher education institutions worldwide who want to join the ICT Academy. Huawei said its goal with the competition is to provide students with a safe environment, where they can compete and exchange ideas, thereby improving their ICT knowledge and practical skills and increasing their ability to innovate by utilizing new technologies and platforms.

And the competition's influence has grown since 2015. The 6th global Huawei ICT Competition held last year drew 150,000 students from more than 2,000 universities and colleges in 85 countries and regions.

Ethiopian students have competed in the competition since 2019.