President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that South Africa’s ICT sector could help drive growth in much-needed jobs.
Ramaphosa, who was speaking at the launch of an Innovation Centre at Huawei’s South African head office in Johannesburg, said South Africa has a “robust” ICT industry that is rapidly expanding both wireless and fixed-fibre infrastructure.
The president said the sector expanded in size by about R25-billion in the past five years, making it “one of our most attractive industries for investment, with substantial growth potential”.
He was joined at the Huawei event by several members of his cabinet, including small business development minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams – herself a former minister of communications – and deputy police minister Cassel Mathale.
“As a country, we have strong regulatory frameworks around cybersecurity, IP and protection of personal information,” the president said in prepared remarks. Huawei’s Innovation Centre will cooperate with small and medium enterprises, which he said is important for economic growth and job creation. “When SMEs are crowded in to utilising technology, they are able to flourish,” he said.
“As we grow the digital economy, our expectation is that the growth in revenue should be matched by the number of jobs the sector can create. This sector, being a tertiary sector, can see exponential job growth,” Ramaphosa added.
‘Encouraging’
“It is therefore encouraging that this Innovation Centre will focus on knowledge and skills that have to be transferred, as well as SME development. That, for us, is what will strengthen the very good partnership we should have with Huawei.”
He implored Huawei to help government with its SA Connect strategy to deliver greater broadband access to South Africans. “We need to move very quickly to ensure there is greater connectivity,” he said, bemoaning feedback he had received recently from communities in KwaZulu-Natal about a lack of telecoms services.
“The longer we take to ensure connectivity for the people of South Africa, the longer they are left behind and the longer our economy will take to grow.” — © 2023 NewsCentral Media
