• President Cyril Ramaphosa was on hand to open Huawei’s new Innovation Centre at its Johannesburg Campus in Woodmead this week.
• The Innovation Centre is aimed at helping South Africa and other African countries make strides when it comes to 4IR technologies.
• Huawei is calling for its South African partners, app developers, and SMMEs in the ICT space to collaborate on projects at the Centre.

This week Huawei officially opened its new Innovation Centre at its Johannesburg campus in Woodmead.

President Cyril Ramaphosa was on hand at the event, along with a delegate of government officials that included the Minister of Small Business Development, Minister of Transport, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, and Deputy Director General among others.

Huawei explains that the Innovation Centre is designed to foster collaboration with the company’s South African partners, app developers, and SMMEs in the ICT space. It also designed to showcase Huawei’s latest and most innovative digital technologies and solutions such as 5G, cloud, and AI.

“It is our hope that this Innovation Centre will be a springboard for the launch of new local ICT enterprises that create jobs,. We hope it will be a springboard to new business processes that grow our economy and support our national developmental goals,” expressed Ramaphosa.

“The application of digital technologies to improve production processes spans a broad range of economic sectors from mining to ports to transportation and others. Last year, for example, the first 5G coal mine was launched in South Africa through a partnership with Huawei, its carrier and industry partners. This centre is a signal of Huawei’s confidence in the South African economy and its potential,” he added.

Having developed several initiatives when it comes to skills development locally to date, including the LEAP digital talent programme, ICT academies, and Tech4All-DigiSchool projects, the Innovation Centre is said to be focusing on knowledge and skills transfer, as well as working towards advancing 4IR technologies.

“We’ve been encouraged by the South African government’s strong vision for its digital economy. South Africa is becoming a role model for the continent, as well as on the global stage, in fields such as 5G deployment and 5G-driven industrial digital transformation,” noted Leo Chen, president of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Huawei is fully committed to contributing more to the country’s ICT infrastructure development and industry digitisation by introducing the latest technologies to South Africa,” he concluded.

With plenty of pomp and circumstance surrounding the unveiling and opening of the Innovation Centre, it will be interesting to see how government and Huawei work towards the goals of industry collaboration, 4IR technologies, and local skills development.

[Image – Provided]