CAPE TOWN,Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- AfricaCom 2019, Africa's leading information and communication Technology (ICT) show, entered its second day in Cape Town on Wednesday, with a number of Chinese comapnies taking the center stage.
The three-day event covers topics including 5G, wholesale telecoms and digital video distribution.
China's telecommunications giant Huawei showcased its latest products at the show and is the focus of attention. Other Chinese companies like China Telecom Global and ZTE were also featured prominantly at the show.
This year's AfricaCom brings together 15,000 attendees, 450 speakers and 500 exhibitors.
The event offers a platform to network, learn and get deals done, organizers said.
"We are excited to attend AfricaCom where Huawei is one of the major partners in this conference and exhibition," Adam Lane, Huawei Deputy CEO of Public Affairs, told Xinhua.
Huawei is trying to connect those still unconnected in Africa and make those already connected benefit from connectivity, Lane said.
"Today we are talking about 5G which is an opportunity to connect homes and businesses to empower entrepreneurs and create jobs in Africa," said Lane.
According to Lane, Huawei's global program is to reach 500 million people and make them benefit from connectivity over the next five years. The program includes Mobile Classroom which offers writing-skills training for teachers and young people in rural areas.
Huawei, Lane said, will help Africa develop infrastructure such as very low-cost base stations to get more people connected to the internet.
With Huawei technologies, banking resources could finally be available to the majority of African people who have no bank accounts, according to Lane.
In Africa, the infrastructure is getting better and better, but not many people are using the internet, hence the need for skills, applications and training to ensure that people benefitting from the internet, said Lane.
With this innovative and inspiring help to bring about a fully connected world, Africa is sure to prosper, Lane said.
Huawei has been in Africa for 20 years, and now it operates in almost every African country. The telecom giant has overtaken Apple as the world's second-largest smartphone provider and has become the world leader in manufacturing of telecom equipment in Europe, Asia and Africa.
"We partner very closely with the governments, the local mobile phone companies, as well as local charities where we support a lot of training programs. We now have about 60 academies across Africa, training lecturers in Cloud, in AI and lots of other technologies to build a glossary of local universities, local lecturers, and they themselves can train local students," Lane said.
That is a huge contribution to the local society, local ecosystem and local talent as well, said Lane.
Chris Rivera, CTO of Syniverse Technologies Global, an American company, said that as people start to see the mobile ecosystem expand, Africa is a place of significant investment.
"The mobile infrastructure is under extreme expansion, and working with our partner China Telecom Group, we are pleased to offer connectivity services from all the mobile carriers, and the enterprises on those mobile carriers, to the African market," said Rivera.
