Huawei today welcomed the Hon. Dr Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services to their Johannesburg offices. The Minister visited the Huawei exhibition hall which showcases the latest ICT technologies including wireless network, fixed network, IP network, and UC&C solutions, and held a dialogue with Mr Eman Liu, President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group for Eastern and Southern Africa, on how companies like Huawei can cooperate with the government to accelerate the ICT development in South Africa.
”The South African government has made a priority, through the requirements of the President, to digitise government systems. Our greatest priority is to digitise the fine line sectors such as health, police, home affairs, justice offices and so forth, and for this we need to work closely with the private sector and companies such as Huawei who offer affordability as well as international expertise,” said the Minister.
Mr Eman Liu thanked Dr Cwele for his visit to Huawei, and made a commitment to the Minister, ”Huawei has been a long-term investor in South Africa, and we’re honoured to have the chance to share our ICT experience with the government, and to share our training resources to shorten ICT skills gap in South Africa. We look forward to working more closely with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services to build a better connected South Africa.”
The visit is a follow-up to the ICT SMME Workshop by the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) that took place on 23 March in Boksburg. The workshop was an attempt to move from a blanket or generalised approach of understanding SMMEs so as to account for the uniqueness of the ICT sector, thereby applying sector-unique intervention for maximum impact. As an ICT leader grown from a small company, Huawei was invited by DTPS to share with delegates on how ICT SMMEs were developed in China.
During the presentation in the ICT SMME workshop, David Wang, Vice President of Eastern & Southern Africa region said, “ICT infrastructure is the key factor to the fast growth of ICT SMMEs in China. Huawei is willing to cooperate with the government of South Africa to accelerate the informatisation process that will drive the development of ICT SMMEs in South Africa."
