(The following remarks was made by His Excellency Ambassador Liu Guijin April 19th at the launching ceremony of Center of Excellence (COE) in University of Zululand, co-sponsored by Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa, Telkom and Chinese Huawei Technologies. The COE program is to increase local telecommunications and general information technology skills to provide a pool of expertise available to the South African telecommunications industry as a whole. )

Professor Gumbi, Rector and Vice Chancellor of University of Zululand;
Mr. Reuben September, Telkom CTO;
Mr. Kevin Tao, President of Huawei Sub-Sahara Africa;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am delighted to attend the singing ceremony and say a few words of congratulations on the formal launch of a new Center of Excellence in the University of Zululand. The COE program is a very brilliant and visionary idea in terms of increasing local telecommunications and general information technology skills and providing a pool of expertise available to the South African telecommunications industry. Telkom has played a vital role in this regard.

Today, I feel happy and even proud that Huawei Technologies has become one of the sponsors of the newly born COE in the University of Zululand. Huawei is a leading corporation in the telecommunications industry in China. Though Huawei is young, it grows very fast taking advantage of the fast-growing economy in China since the country adopted the economic reform and opening-up policy over 25 years. With Huawei’s development I hope that the COE here will make big strides towards its objectives and contribute in a way to the human resources development and the BEE in South Africa.

China has a lot of interactions with Kwazulu-Natal province. This province is twined with Shanghai, China’s biggest industrial city. And investment from China, including the Mainland and Taiwan, mainly concentrates here in KZN, particularly in Newcastle and Ladysmith. A group of Chinese companies just recently won a tender for a ship-building yard project in Richard Bay. South Africa as whole has remained China’s biggest trade partner in Africa and future prospects for furthering the economic, trade, scientific and technological cooperation between our two countries are even brighter.

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today is an auspicious day. Right now in Pretoria the IEC is celebrating the successful third non-racial general election. With a new government at both national and provincial levels, I believe that South Africa will be in a better position to face various challenges such as poverty, unemployment, crime, HIV aids, etc, and make major progress in addressing the above issues for a better life for people of all races.

Finally my best wishes to the new COE once again.

Thank you!