The two-day 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) concluded on September 4th. As China's largest and highest-profile home diplomatic event to date, all African members attended the summit.

 At the FOCAC, President Xi Jinping announced that China is willing to build a closer China-Africa Community of fate in a new era, work closely with African countries to jointly implement the "eight major actions", based on the "Ten Cooperation Plan" set out at the Johannesburg Summit.

 Africa has always been an important stop in the process of Hengtong’s internationalization. With responsibility and undertaking, Hengtong has developed a deep friendship with the local people to help promote the socio-economic development of Africa。

 South Africa

Not just about Cooperation, but also Social Responsibility

In December 2015, Hengtong acquired South African cable maker Aberdare Inc. Hengtong retained all the company’s management and technical backbone and insisted on localization operation to make the enterprise a steady transition.

 To improve Aberdare's market competitiveness and achieve its product upgrades, Hengtong has also stepped up investment efforts to promote a range of technological changes and new investment projects.

With the continuous expansion of industrial investment, Hengtong also introduced "made in Chinese Manufacture" and "Chinese Innovation" into South Africa. Most equipment in the new projects were from China, and all technology also has Hengtong's own intellectual property rights. In Aberdare, Hengtong brings not only advanced management ideas and technology, but also a social responsibility.

 In order to solve the problem of too low economic status and too few shares faced by the black people in the enterprises, the South African government has promulgated and implemented Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (shorted for BEE). Based on the outstanding achievements in enterprise management, Hengtong, with the highest score of 105.79 in the cable industry, has successfully won the first rating grade of BEE and won wide acclaim from all walks of life in South Africa.

 Egypt

Deep Friendship in "Storm of Shots and Shells"

In 2011, the political situation in Egypt was unsettled, so Hengtong’s market personnel in Egypt heard shots from time to time. Many foreign companies evacuated to avoid risk. But Hengtong insisted in the barrage of gunfire. A year later, Hengtong became the only Chinese company to enter the Egyptian telecommunications market!

 In 2014, Egyptian President Sisi made his first visit to China, which upgraded Sino-Egyptian relations into a comprehensive strategic partnership, opening up a broader space for cooperation in various fields. In the same year, Hengtong won the bid for the optical fiber communication network project of Egyptian presidential office.

Yasser Qadi, Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt said  "Hengtong will bring about profound changes in Egypt!"

In March 2018, Hengtong and Egypt's HitekNOFAL Group set up a joint venture to establish an optical cable production base. The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Yasser Qadi, said the Egyptian government plans to build 16 new cities and needs to build a large amount of information and communications infrastructure, and the cooperation with Hengtong will change Egypt, accelerating Egypt's move into a digital society and help the country to boost exports to Africa and the Middle East in the future.

 Ethiopia

Injecting Strong "Power" into Economic Development

Mulatu Teshome, President of Ethiopia said "Ethiopia has benefited a lot from its cooperation with Hengtong."

In September 2015, Hengtong was one of the providers of the power transmission system technology, the most critical core technology of the light rail in the capital, Berbatov. The successful opening of the light rail has not only greatly alleviated the local traffic pressure, but also marked Ethiopia as the first country in East Africa to modernize light rail transport. In 2014, when Premier Li Keqiang visited Ethiopia during the project, he made a special trip to the project site.

In December 2015, Africa's largest power transmission and transformation project, the Nile Grand Renaissance Dam to Ethiopia and Kenya, was successfully completed, marking the beginning of an era of 500 kV voltage levels in Ethiopia. The completion of the project not only guaranteed Ethiopia and neighbouring countries an adequate supply of electricity, but also significantly improved its transmission capacity, which is equivalent to three times the country's total generator power generation. 

Comoros

“Country of the Moon” Playing “Time-travel TV Series”

Comorian Telecom CTO Bayhaki Kambi said "Thanks to Hengtong for its excellent products and services."  

In May 2016, Hengtong took on the Comorian "Avassa submarine cable project", which consisted of two submarine cables connecting the two ends of the Greater Comoros and the islands of Anjouan and Mayotte, with total cable length of about 260 km. Since then, the reliability of the Comoros' backbone network has been guaranteed, which has also helped the country to achieve interconnection with East Africa and other parts of the world.

Djibouti

Achieving Communication between Asia and Europe, Africa and Europe

Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, General Manager of Djibouti Telecom said "Cooperation with Hengtong will bring about the digital and economic transformation of the Republic of Djibouti."

 In August, 2018, Hengtong signed a PEACE submarine cable landing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and landing party agreement with Pakistan network service provider Cybernet and Djibouti Telecom during the 4th Asia-Pacific Submarine Networks Forum. The PEACE cable trunk will land in Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France to become an important communication backbone for the Asia-Europe, Africa-Europe economic corridor. This cooperation will achieve the digital and economic transformation of the Republic of Djibouti.