BRICS summit is around the conner. The members have committed to expanding their collaboration in science and technology. It follows a declaration unanimously adopted by the countries in 2016. Leading global ICT company Huawei has played an active role in this collaboration. It's launched an innovation centre in South Africa to provide ICT training to locals. CGTN's Sumitra Nydoo visited the center in Johannesburg.

 

Just over a year ago Huawei signed a partnership agreement with South Africa's ICT Ministry. The company has committed to training 1,000 ICT professionals over the next five years. The programme will go towards helping South Africa achieve its digital transformation ambitions.

 

JACKY ZHANG DEPUTY CEO, HUAWEI SOUTH AFRICA We focus on information and communication-type technology. So we do the skills transfer to South Africa, especially for the engineers and the technical people. And normally we train them in our training centre, and we also have a programme together with the DTPS, which is the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Service.

 

As part of its ongoing commitment to develop IT skills on the continent, Huawei also launched a new innovation centre in Johannesburg which includes open labs for next generation digital innovators and engineers. The company wants to turn South Africa into a digital hub for the continent.

 

DR. BELLO MOUSSA INNOVATION DIRECTOR, HUAWEI SOUTH AFRICA This is the main experience centre where you are seeing the live network, different services from different type of operators. This is for example a customer solution cloud that gives you an idea of the connectivity of global connectivity status around the world - more lighter, more connection, more you know broadband connectivity, here Europe and America, and Africa is still one in the dark.

 

Huawei has launched its seeds for the future program in South Africa. The social responsibility initiative, which has been running since 2008 already operates in 96 countries across the world. The company has already groomed 20,000 people over the last 10 years. Huawei will spend $500,000 over the next five years on skills training and information and knowledge sharing.

 

JACKY ZHANG DEPUTY CEO, HUAWEI SOUTH AFRICA We let the South African Government to pick up the outstanding of the university students. Last year we sent ten of the students back to China for two weeks training. So, this programme we are continuing to run and we already signed an MOU with the DTPS for the five years long term programme.

 

South Africa is he most developed countries in Africa but it still lagging behind developed nation in technology advancement. It jumped 10 places in the latest World Economic Forum global information and communication technology rankings from 75th to 65th.

 

JACKY ZHANG We think that South Africa has the best ICT infrastructure in the African continent but compared to the other countries e.g. China, Korea, Japan and the infrastructure I think, we still have a lot of space to improve e.g. right now for the communication industry, we already have a lot of latest technology like Internet of Things, the big data cloud and this is new technology Huawei wish to bring to South Africa.

 

Over the long term Huawei will continue investing in the South African market. It is expected to open a regional head office in Johannesburg the next 12 months, which will add at least 500 jobs to its workforce. SN CGTN JHB SA.