HUAWEI has invested US$156 billion (about R2, 876 trillion) in research and development (R&D) over the past decade.
David Wang, Executive Director of the Board and Chairman of the Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure Managing Board for Huawei, disclosed the figures at the Huawei Africa Connect 2024 in Johannesburg.
“This ongoing investment has helped us lead the industry,” Wang said, opening the event.
More than 2 500 business and thought leaders met at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Previously called Huawei Eco Connect, this year’s Huawei Africa Connect edition reaffirmed the company’s commitment to sub-Saharan Africa and providing innovative solutions to partners in these markets.
Hover Gao, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa, lauded Africa’s young population, blooming cities and bold innovations across industries from fintech to clean energy.
He added the region was now faced with “an unprecedented opportunity to reshape its future.”
Africa Connect 2024 focused on how the intelligent digital era in Africa was impacting sectors like finance, transportation, manufacturing, internet service provision and Small to Medium Enterprises.
Gao emphasized Huawei would play four key roles by leveraging strengths in leading ICT technologies.
These include being the constructor of digital and intelligent infrastructure, the innovator in the digital intelligent transformation of African industries, the enabler of the industry’s low-carbon development and a contributor to Africa’s prosperous innovative ecosystem.
Premier of the Gauteng Province, Panyaza Lesufi, said the newly-installed government would embrace innovation.
He stressed he would like to see more solutions that could help combat crime in economic hubs like Johannesburg.
Victor Guo, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Enterprise business group spoke about the importance of emerging economies like Nigeria and South Africa.
“There are a lot of young people, they are open and eager to learn new technology. We trust sub-Saharan Africa is going to have a unique role towards intelligence,” Guo said.
Leon Wang, President of the Data Communication Product Line at Huawei, introduced the Xinghe Intelligent Network.
These comprise Xinghe Intelligent Campus, Xinghe Intelligent Fabric, Xinghe Intelligent WAN, and Xinghe Intelligent Network Security.
These services will leverage the latest technology including artificial intelligence (AI) and network scale load balance algorithms to create smart networks that deliver industry leading connection speeds and security.
“We will always provide the newest solutions and products to help our customers accelerate to a connected world,” Wang said.
Dr Peter Zhou, President of the Data Storage Product Line, Huawei, said: “The energy use and efficiency of data centres becomes more essential as we begin to talk about AI on a large scale.”
Huawei’s customers and distribution partners from across the region spoke of how the Chinese technology giant had impacted their business.
Faith Burn, Chief Information Officer for Eskom, said, “We have successful partnerships with Huawei around getting our infrastructure in place so that we are ready for the digitalisation journey we need to go on.”
Cheryl-Jane Kujenga from BCX, said the company aimed to provide modernisation and support with sector specific solutions in a range of industries from financial to banking and education sectors.
“As a systems integrator, we will need to keep learning to enhance our capabilities and crucially to collaborate with a leading technology company such as Huawei so that we can broaden our service offering to meet our changing customer needs,” said Kujenga.
by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG
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