Huawei holds annual Eco Connect event in South Africa

Huawei says SA is a key market that will play an important part in generating stronger returns.

Johannesburg (Reuters) - Global tech giant Huawei held its annual Eco Connect event on Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa, bringing together industry visionaries, partners, and customers for an update on its plans and offerings to the South African market.

The company saw massive growth last year and expects a further 15 percent rise in global growth this year. It says South Africa is a key market that will play an important part in generating stronger returns.

It s taken Huawei over 30 years but as of last year, the Chinese tech giant has overtaken American rival Apple in global smartphone sales. Huawei is also fast becoming an expert in smart security.

"Behind the numbers is a huge investment in R and D and a huge investment into the critical technologies which will drive the world to the digital one, so including 5G, AI, Internet of Things, big data, and cloud. So those technologies across the board will help the future to bring the world more digital and to explore the value from the data," said Alex Du Min, managing director of Huawei Enterprise South Africa.

The company boasts state of the art digital security and surveillance to combat crime. Huawei has also introduced new innovation in Internet of Things (IOT), and two new cloud centers are set to go live in Johannesburg and Cape Town this year that will assist local enterprise development.

Gijima, one of South Africa s leading information and communications technology services companies in South Africa, just won a license to provide the government with a comprehensive cloud solution, thanks to its partnership with Huawei, who is essentially providing all of the IT infrastructure.

"The launching pad of the SITA [State Information Technology Agency] cloud is around digital transformation. So how government can be accessed digitally and also how access to information can be improved. Very important, because this now reduces the number of servers that are within government space. Then that allows them, government entities, to secure services as they use them," said Maphumuzana Nxumalo, chief operating officer of Gijima Group.

Despite clashes with the United States, Huawei says it has a good working relationships with most countries and that security is an important element of its business.

"Huawei looks into supporting governments and government departments like ministries and institutions, agencies and government bodies so to speak in what we call their digital transformation process," said Edwin Diender, vice president of the Huawei Government and Public Utility Sector.

Huawei has also partnered with South Africa s data-only network provider Rain in efforts to be the first to bring a 5G network to the country. The company says the initiative means they are at least one year ahead of competitors in this regard.