Dr Siyabonga Cwele presents an award to Mr Li Peng
Huawei commenced its 20th anniversary celebration in Africa at the just-ended AfricaCom ICT event in Cape Town, South Africa.
Huawei Southern Africa President Li Peng reflected on the company’s remarkable growth journey on the continent at a gala dinner attended by VIP guests, including South Africa’s Minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services, Dr. Siyabonga Cwele.
In 1998, Huawei sent a team from China to set up its business in Africa.
Africa was among the first few locations Huawei chose to expand out of China.
Li Peng said that with over 20 years of working with partners to enhance ICT infrastructure and empower African people, Huawei has witnessed and contributed to the amazing changes and progress that have revolutionized the way people connect, learn and entertain.
“ICT plays an increasingly important role in enhancing development, as a reliable ICT partner in Africa, Huawei is dedicated to innovating around the needs of our customers and continuously pushing the boundaries of ICT to develop a diverse range of services tailored to local needs for the rapid growth of the telecom industry, and realization of national development strategies. We are committed to leapfrog the process of building a better connected Africa,” said Li Peng.
During the event, South Africa’s Minister for Telecommunications and Postal Services Dr. Siyabonga Cwele presented an Award of Excellence to Huawei South Africa for its outstanding contribution to ICT.
Dr. Cwele said, “Huawei is one of our most important partners. Huawei has grown to be one of the biggest technology companies today. We are inspired by the fact that it started out as an SMME.”
In the past two decades, Huawei, in partnership with governments and telcos, has been boosting ICT infrastructure in the region, deploying first 2G, 3G, 4G and 4.5G networks respectively in various countries and conducted Africa’s first outdoor 5G Field Trial.
Huawei also deployed ICT solutions, including smart city and safe city in some countries to make them better destinations for living, visiting and investing.
In addition to providing customers with secure, stable and high-quality communications networks, Huawei proactively fulfills its corporate social responsibility using its core technologies and capabilities.
With two innovation centers in the region, Huawei strives to develop and nurture an ecosystem for joint efforts with industrial and academic partners in tailoring ICT solutions.
With four training centers, Huawei has been bridging the digital divide and building a strong ICT talent pool through career certification programmes, ICT training and talent development programmes and sponsorships for cultural, education and sports initiatives.
“Huawei will continue its contribution to growing Africa’s telecoms industries and fully releasing ICT’s enabling power to enhance social economic development and to empower Africa’s most important asset, its people, with ICT knowledge and skills, with the aim of bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected and intelligent world,” Li Peng added.