SAVANT hosts international journalists
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) held a successful roadshow in October to showcase the best in ICT that South Africa has to offer. The roadshow covered key destinations spanning Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
30 October 2008
"The road show was carefully designed to showcase SA enterprises which demonstrate Africa's world-class, innovative, integrated solutions in the ICT and telecommunications industry," says Nadia Nortje, assistant director of the Electro-technical Unit in the dti's Enterprise & Industry Development Division.
The most important objective of SAVANT is to promote and support the growth of the local ICT sector by providing it with a global voice, she says.
SAVANT invited top editors from all over the world, including publications such as Telecommunications Magazine (UK), Asian Mobile News (Singapore), Connect World (Brazil), Information Age (UK), Questex (Europe) and Foreign Direct Investment (USA), she says.
The programme included a presentation on the South African ICT sector by the dti director Yusuf Timol. The Independent Communications Authority of SA also provided insight into ICT's sector's legal and regulatory framework which has undergone drastic changes through the managed liberalisation process.
Frost & Sullivan also provided the journalists with commentary on the sector as a whole.
Delegates also visited a number of successful ICT and telecommunication companies, such as Vodacom's Network Service Centre in Bellville, and Fundamo in Cape Town, which is renowned for developing a mobile-wallet platform used extensively on the African continent.
Worth repeating:
Nortje says the road show was very successful and her department is keen to host another event of that nature in future.
"We've already started seeing results from the road show, with a number of the journalists writing very good articles about SA. A lot of them were not sure what to expect and it was very educational for them to be exposed to the kind of infrastructure and economy that we have."
The journalists taking part in the road show were very impressed by the extent and sophistication of the South African communications infrastructure and the business opportunities that the sector offers, she adds.
Nortje notes that SA has more than 35 million mobile phone subscribers, and over five million fixed line subscribers. SA is also listed 23rd in telecommunications development worldwide. The South African cellphone market is growing at some 50% per annum and is the fourth fastest growing market in the world, she says. The South African IT industry growth outstrips the world average.