Huawei Stresses Smart Digital Transformation Plan

David Wang, the executive director and chairman of the ICT Infrastructure managing board at Huawei, has unveiled plans to accelerate the rollout of AI-enabled technologies such as OceanStor A800 in Africa. This initiative aims to help businesses on the continent become ready for adoption and integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by enhancing performance, capacity, and security. 

During his keynote speech at the Huawei Africa Connect 2024 conference in Johannesburg, Wang outlined numerous product lines that leverage intelligent technology. He emphasized that Africa holds a significant advantage due to its young population which forms a vast potential skills pool. 

"Africa is home to one fourth of the world's youth," Wang said. "Young people are adapting quickly to digital transformation." Noting how AI and GenAI applications are driving business growth worldwide, he revealed that over ten years, Huawei had invested $156 billion into research and development (R&D). 

"We have reinvested over 20% of our annual revenue in R&D for three consecutive years," stated Wang. "This ongoing investment has positioned us as industry leaders with a key focus on networks, security computing and cloud." 

In Sub-Saharan Africa particularly where digitalization efforts have been underway for two decades now; Huawei has played a critical role serving more than 500 customers across various sectors including government institutions, finance firms & electric power companies among others. 

Wang also highlighted successful implementation of their 'one country-one cloud-one network' model aimed at accelerating digital transformation within crucial industries. The government sector exemplifies success achieved through this approach resulting in connection of one thousand colonies while simultaneously migrating more than 500 business applications onto cloud platforms. 

Huawei continues investing heavily into innovation across Sub-Saharan Africa with four joint innovation centres already established so far. South Africa is viewed as an integral market by them having a strong presence especially within the Gauteng region. 

Panyaza Lesufi- premier from Gauteng who was present during this conference endorsed South African Government's commitment towards digital transformation and technological innovation. The government is keen on harnessing ICT to boost connectivity while focusing specifically on AI, GenAI, data management & the cloud. 

Lesufi assured attendees that a new administration would not impact or change existing policies related to ICT services. "The GNU will accelerate policy implementation rather than shift it," he said. "Our goal is to work with companies like Huawei in ways that bring about change and improve service delivery within our communities.”