Aug 31, 2018

[China, Beijing, August 31, 2018] The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, visited Huawei’s Executive Briefing Center and held talks with Li Jie, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Huawei. During the talks, Bio expressed the expectation to strengthen cooperation with Huawei and help the country's digital transformation.

Julius Maada Bio, president of Sierra Leone (fourth from right) meeting with Li Jie, Senior Vice President of Huawei (fourth form Left) in Beijing

President Bio said, Huawei’s contribution to boosting ICT infrastructure in Sierra Leone has laid a solid foundation and provide a fast track for Sierra Leone's long-term development in all sectors especially in agriculture, education and health sector. Sierra Leone will further strengthen its cooperation with Huawei to promote a comprehensive digital transformation of the country based on the promotion of the ICT infrastructure in Sierra Leone.

Li Jie said, Sierra Leone maintains a good momentum of growth with huge potential. It is a pleasure to see that the development of the ICT industry in Sierra Leone has been full of vitality in recent years, and the vigorous ICT industry has played an important role in promoting the development. Rooted in Sierra Leone for more than a decade, Huawei has been committed to the construction of ICT infrastructure in the country, contributing to boosting connectivity and digitalization.

President Bio said, national backbone network project carried out by Huawei has greatly improved ICT infrastructure in Sierra Leone and laid a solid base for Sierra Leone’s digital transformation. He is expecting Huawei to further participate in promoting social economic development of Sierra Leone with its ICT capability.

Li Jie said Huawei will continue to offer advice and suggestions to ICT development planning in Sierra Leone with it global expertise and local experience under the guidance of Sierra Leone's national development strategy. He added Huawei is committed to bringing the digital world to more individuals, families and organizations in Sierra Leone, by developing more digital services tailored local needs, to fully unleash the transformative power of ICT in improving people’s life and increasing efficiency.

After the talks, the Ministry of Information and Communications of Sierra Leone and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing strategic partnership in the ICT field, which aims to explore the best ways of ICT development and its role to play in enhancing social economic development.

Huawei’s national director Zhang Long (first from left) and Sierra Leone’s communications minister Mohamed Swarri (first from right) signed the memorandum of understanding on behalf of Huawei and the Sierra Leone government.

Since it entered Sierra Leone in 2004, Huawei has been working with local operators to provide secure, stable and high-quality communication networks for Sierra Leone people, and contribute to the country's digital transformation. Huawei currently is serving more than 60% of the country’s population with its products and services. Huawei also actively fulfills its corporate social responsibility with its core technical capabilities, to eliminate the digital divide through training programs which has benefited hundreds of local ICT talents. It also adheres to its consistent philosophy of focusing on basic research and open cooperation by engaging with universities in the country to consolidate ICT personnel base for national development.