Last week Huawei Enterprise Business Group hosted its hybrid Eco Connect 2022 event. The locally held conference was used by the company to outline its focus as regard ICT in South Africa over the next few years.

To that end the need for investment, as well as its own commitment on that front, was a significant topic of discussion for Huawei.

Here the company noted that South Africa will require extensive investment in innovation and digital skills, as well as partnerships between state players, enterprise-scale corporations, SMEs and micro enterprises.

It was a sentiment echoed by Philly Mapulane, Deputy Minister in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), who was one of the government officials in attendance.

“Our department is acutely aware of the need for digital transformation in both the private and public sectors. We in the DCDT subscribe to the vision of being ‘a leader in enabling a connected and digitally transformed South Africa’,” he explained.

On the skills development front, Mapulane highlighted Huawei’s Seeds for the Future, ICT Academy Programme and 4IR talent training initiatives, as examples of where good work has been done.

Speaking of the organisation’s continued commitment to the region, Ryan Ding, Global president for Huawei Enterprise Business Group, joined virtually to share his plans for SA.

Here he said that, “Huawei is actively investing in South Africa,” adding that it will, “continue to focus on ICT and digital innovation, facilitating digital transformation.”

One of the areas where Huawei will be investing heavily is with its hyperscaling cloud offering. To that end Leo Chen, president of Huawei Southern Africa, noted that the company will have spun up its third availability zone locally, which is said to halve cloud latency and once it is live.

“We want our partnerships to help South African companies build South African solutions,” he added, while also highlighting innovation focused initiatives like the Open Lab, Joint Innovation Center and POC Lab.

Sticking with Huawei Cloud, South Africa CEO Spawn Fan confirmed that the company would be investing R100 million in 1 000 startups over the next three years.

Fan also emphasised the company’s 5G rollout and the role it will play for its local partners.

“We’ve supported South African operators to build more than 2800 5G base stations and have more than 1000 registered SMME partners. We need to enable local partners and people to get the most advanced technology,” he concluded.

It therefore looks like the South African ICT space will feature many initiatives and innovations driven by Huawei in future.