INTERVIEW WITH THE HUAWEI MANAGING DIRECTOR MR. BRUCE ZHANG

INTERVIEW WITH THE HUAWEI MANAGING DIRECTOR MR. BRUCE ZHANG

1.    Tell us more about Huawei? Huawei is

·         A Fortune Global 500 company

·         14 Regional Headquarters,  operations in 140+ countries

·         Serving 45 of the world's top 50 operators

·         Serving 1/3 of the world’s population

2.    When was Huawei established in Tanzania?

Huawei has been in Tanzania since 2001, providing innovative ICT solutions in partnership with operators and government to enrich the lives of people of Tanzania through communication in both voice and data.

3.    What does the ‘Huawei ICT Star” program for Tanzania education entails, how will it demonstrate, support and contribute to ICT development within the national education program in Tanzania?

The program seeks to support and contribute to Tanzania national education, especially on ICT education, ICT knowledge transfer and ICT talent training.

4.    Huawei as a leading ICT supplier, why choose to invest in Tanzania?

As a multination with local presence, Africa is an important market for Huawei and so is Tanzania.Huawei   is committed to continue investing, serving and growing withTanzania.

5.    What are the major ICT challenges that Huawei is facing in Tanzania?

·         Unknown brand name due to our B2B strategy. Network infrastructure being the Huawei’s entry business to Africa, our name was not very know by a large market but this has changed since the launch of our consumer devices business that targets the end user through smartphones, tablets,  dongles, set top boxes among other devices. In addition, Huawei has also promoted an open and transparent approach with local stakeholder to promote understanding of our brand.

·         Inadequacy of qualified technical local talent. This was a challenge in some parts of Africa, but Huawei has solved this issue through our extensive knowledge transfer programs for our staff, customers and local universities to bridge the knowledge gap. In addition, brought in international staff to share in their best practices with local talent, who afterwards take positions of responsibility to best exhibit their learned skills.

·         Cultural/language barrier. Huawei is a global ICT leader with origin in China, and this was a challenge initially as tried to establish our presence in Africa.  Through our globalization strategy, Huawei has employed more local and international staff, and currently we have 5,800 employees in Africa, over 60% of who are locally recruited.

6.    What are the other Huawei CR&S programs in Tanzania?

Huawei has been involved in various CSR initiatives in the areas of Bridging the Digital Dividee.g. Computer Donation to secondary schools in regional area in Tanzania, Contributing to the communities Where We Operate e.g. sponsor of HAFL-Marathon activity with Vodacom., and Contribution to local Education e.g. Donation towards the construction and development of secondary schools in Zanzibar.

7.    Whatare the opportunities for more innovative services in Tanzania?

Smartphone market: According to Blycroft, there is mobile phone penetration of around 70% across Africa, but smartphone penetration is only 10% to 15%.  The rapid drop in smartphone pricing will play a major role in bringing Internet connectivity to Africans over the next five to 10 years.  This applies to Tanzania too, and Huawei has embraced this opportunity by bringing into the market the less than $100 smartphone for locals to enjoy broadband.

Local content: the availability of cheaper  mobile broadband and affordable devices will promote the development  of localized applications that will solve every day problems in the areas of agriculture, health, road safety, education among others.

8.    How will the ‘Huawei ICT Star” program for Tanzania encourage citizens to participate ICT education?

The initiative seeks to provide a platform for the Tanzania young talents to improve their ICT skills on a global level, reducing the Dangers posed by the digital divide and the risk of being excluded from the knowledge economy and social development.The opportunitycompete on the same level with other global talents, is a motivation.

9.    Does Huawei have any training facilities in Africa?

Yes. Huawei has 1 R&D center (South Africa); 7 training centers (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa). These facilities serve the training and research needs for the continent.

10.  What is the future of ICT in Tanzania?

ICT has huge potential in providing quality services in education, health, commerce and public administration. Statistics show that in Tanzania the sector is growing at between 15 and 20 per cent annually which is the highest in the East African Community (EAC) region.

Continued investment in ICT will boost the GDP of Tanzania- Analysis by Deloitte shows that a 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration leads to a 1.2 per cent increase in GDP in the long-run across developing countries.