In Luanda, in the Angolan offices of Huawei, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, attempts are made to forget the trade war dictated by the United States and the United Kingdom and to enliven the vision of Angola, while Covid-19 is in charge of shattering the remaining plans and dreams short-term generational Management is possible in times of instability.
With more than 20 years of official presence in the country and 1300 direct jobs, Huawei Angola introduced a new CEO (or “Chief Executive Officer”, in English, equivalent to PCA chairman of the Board of Directors), Chu Xiaoxin, in April.
“Around the world, the new coronavirus has forced people to rethink their lifestyle. This will further highlight the importance of connectivity ”and telecommunications services, believes the Chinese nationality manager in a conversation with Jornal de Angola.
The interview with Chu Xiaoxin took place by videoconference, using a virtual platform that was projected internationally with the pandemic and with the need to develop new forms of communication and remote work.
Companies that have always been extremely zealous with the presence of workers in the office environment changed their opinion and method of working in a few days. The need is almost always stronger and more agile than the convictions.
Chu Xiaoxin, born in 1986, graduated from Nanjing University in Computer Science, presented himself professionally and the conversation followed the previously announced paths.
The manager revealed that he still does not know the country well, but said he was “surprised by the positive” with the infrastructure he found in the capital. Even so, he recalls that Angola is still far from the penetration of mobile services that is seen in other African countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.
“The market for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Angola is still slower than in neighboring countries”, stresses Xiaoxin.
According to data from the Angolan Communications Institute (INACOM), regulator of the ICT sector, the mobile penetration rate was at 49 percent of the population by the end of 2019. In Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, mobile penetration exceeds 80 percent. This reality is not unrelated to the difficulty in investing in the country, especially in the most profitable sectors, where there are already established national competitors and with strong privileged relationships with policy makers and regulators.
“Angola has a lot of room to improve”, considers Chu Xiaoxin, who speaks in the style of someone who warns of a business opportunity and economic development.
To keep up with the past of the main African telecommunications markets, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure, improve the business environment and the regulation of the sector, which is still very dependent on the Government.
“Since the 2000s, Angola has been actively building the telecommunications infrastructure”, considers the manager, but more efforts are needed “to accelerate the development” of ICT.
“Let's take the number of wireless base stations as an example: in Angola, every 11 users have access to a base station. In Kenya, there are 3.000 people per base station. In South Africa, a base station serves 1.500 people. In addition, only 68 percent of the Angolan population benefits from radio coverage, which means that more than a third of Angolans live in areas without any network ”, explains Chu Xiaoxin.
The concentration of users on wireless base stations results in slower access and less connectivity: it results in worse service, in the background, and potentially more expensive. The entry of new telecommunications operators in the coming months may have some impact on the sector's infrastructures. The fourth operator, Africell, intends to start in the coming months, while Angola Telecom keeps open the possibility of using the third license that has been assigned to it.
“Firstly, the new operators will build infrastructures, such as wireless base stations and optical networks, which will promote the development of the mobile communications market. Second, the arrival of new operators provides users with greater choice and diverse services, ”said Chu Xiaoxin.
5G: Trade war or espionage?
In the plans Huawei Angola's inauguration (scheduled for 2021) in Luanda, of an innovation center valued at US $ 60 million remains.
The center will be part of the company's facilities in Angola, which still include a professional training and certification center (after having trained 68 people in 2019, an additional 300 Angolans certified by Huawei are expected in 2020) and an experience center, where new technologies, products and available solutions are disclosed.
The main activity in Angola, however, is focused on connectivity services, the sale of mobile phones and the installation and management of telecommunications networks (fiber optics, for example).
Internationally, the Chinese company is also very relevant in the distribution of components (chips and other similar parts). Its main customers are the mobile phone operators in the country, which means that call and Internet traffic depend, to a large extent, on infrastructures set up by Huawei. This is not the case only in Angola. The multinational provides 45 of the 50 largest mobile phone operators in the world, a scenario that could change radically with the sanctions applied by the USA.
It also provides the same type of services to the business and government sector, as in the production and distribution of energy, transport (management of airports and railways) and electronic governance.
US pressure
But beyond business in Angola, Huawei faces pressure so strong from the US and the UK that it must then spread to allied countries - which could jeopardize much of the Chinese company's winning trajectory, especially in the more developed and wealthy markets. .
At the limit, the siege that is being set up may prevent, for example, the access of Huawei-branded devices to applications such as facebook or whatsapp, among other difficulties. Such a decision would jeopardize the entire business model of the Chinese multinational, which had a turnover of around US $ 65 billion in the first six months of 2020 alone. Huawei is currently the most sold mobile phone brand in the world. ahead of Samsung (South Korea) and Nokia (Finland). However, the Donald Trump administration does not seem to want to know about the future internal and external impacts of Huawei's exclusion from next generation networks, also known as 5G. This technology will expand and improve services for autonomous cars, robots, remote surgery and other modern applications. The potential is incredible. But they are even more invasive technologies, which need to access more personal or private information, with relevant security impacts that must be considered.
With a presence in Africa since 1998, Huawei argues that the use and access to personal data and private information should be analyzed through regulation and compliance with laws.
"The entire sector (operators, governments, regulators, users) has responsibilities in this matter," said Chu Xiaoxin.
“But at this point, we must continue to serve our customers. It is the focus of Huawei. Some things don't just depend on us and our will. Since last year, we have felt pressure to increase, but we should be focused only on creating value for our customers ”, believes the leader of the Chinese multinational in Angola.
Another question that the detractors of Chinese technology companies raise on the table, related to doubts about data security and possible political and commercial espionage, is related to their management and ownership. The US openly accuses Huawei of being controlled by China's high military and political structures. Officially, however, it is a private company wholly owned by its employees, through union organizations (104 thousand 572 workers own shares in the company). The founder, Ren Zhengfei, holds 1,04 percent of the share capital.
Despite self-naming its corporate governance rules as “solid and effective” and working with independent auditors (KPMG, in this case), to conduct financial audits and release annual reports, the connection to unions in a regime of strong social surveillance , practically without political, association and expression freedom, suggests that the relationship with the Chinese Government is really close.
“The external environment and macroeconomic changes will undoubtedly have an impact on our business”, recognizes Chi Xiaoxin.
However, he believes that the situation "is manageable" in Angola for several reasons, mainly due to the need for technological transformation that the country faces and the knowledge that the company has accumulated on the national market. Huawei denies all espionage charges and says it is, in fact, a trade war.
The USA, if we think of Edward Snowden, just to cite an example, and in his revelations (denounced the existence of massive online surveillance programs for citizens in general, run by the secret services), is also in a delicate position. Basically, they are old tactics. Move away to maintain power. Delegitimize to underestimate. Those affected also try to reverse the trend, fight, struggle, try to get around. The world goes on, clinging to the inevitable cell phone and now to the sticky alcohol gel. There are viruses like that.
