Staff Reporter
Windhoek
President Hage Geingob, who is on an official visit to China, led a delegation of government officials to Huawei Beijing R&D centre and held talks with Li Dafeng, senior vice-president of Huawei. During the talks, Geingob said it is important to leverage information and communication technology (ICT) to further advance public security.
The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on how ICT can promote Namibian economic and social development and enhance the well being of the people, according to a statement.
President Geingob pointed out that in this information age, ICT is playing an increasingly important role in the country’s economic and social development and the improvement of people’s livelihoods.
He said it is important to focus on public security. He noted that Huawei’s Safe City Solution presentation and content on display was very impressive.
Dafeng introduced Huawei’s business in Namibia and the fulfilment of corporate social responsibility. He said that Namibia has a relatively complete ICT infrastructure and Huawei is willing to further cooperate with local partners under the strategic guidance of the Namibian government to make full use of these infrastructures and continue to contribute to Namibia’s national development and improvement of people’s livelihood.
After the meeting, President Geingob attended a donation ceremony of smart educational solutions and equipment. The programme, which includes a set of online learning system, interactive teaching platform and multimedia classroom hardware and software and supporting equipment, aims to promote the rational distribution of educational resources in the country through online and remote education technologies and platforms, and improve educational resources to solid talent base for Namibia’s economic and social development.
Huawei entered the Namibian market in 2005 and has actively participated in ICT infrastructure construction, promoted local economic and social development, and explored the broad prospects for digital development with related parties, the Chinese giant said.
At present, Huawei products serve more than 80 percent of the country’s population. In 2016, Huawei and local operators conducted the first 4.5G network application demonstration in Africa in the country. “In the next three years, Huawei will also work with local operators to strengthen rural connectivity and help achieve the goal of 100 percent population coverage of communications services,” the company said.
“In addition, as a responsible corporate citizen, Huawei attaches great importance to strengthening the country’s capacity building in ICT, through the ‘Seeds of the Future’ ICT talent training programme, donation of university research laboratories, and the sponsorship of the National ICT Summit to actively promote the country’s ICT industry.”