ZTE seeks African growth

Chinese telecoms company ZTE sees SA as a growth market and is actively chasing government deals, it says.
The company has already won a contract worth R2.9 billion from Cell C, to supply the mobile operator with GSM and universal mobile telecommunications system technologies. The deal includes product sales and engineering services.

However, ZTE SA executive director Tumi Magasa says this is not enough, and it wants to win many more orders in SA. Magasa also heads up the empowerment consortium, 8 Mile Investments, which acquired a 32% stake in ZTE SA in May 2007.
Magasa says the group is targeting opportunities in government departments and the State IT Agency. It is also busy with a tender for a network for the defence command centre and wants to supply two-way radios to both defence and the SA Police Force.
Upgrade opportunities
ZTE SA is also one of Telkom Mobile's approved suppliers, and is waiting for a handset order from the company, says Magasa. There are a lot of opportunities that we are chasing.
According to Magasa, ZTE has a low market share in SA and is competing against fellow Chinese company Huawei for orders. However, as cellular operators upgrade their networks, he believes SA is a big growth market .
ZTE is a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions. Its 2009 revenue was more than $8.8 billion.
It is China's only listed telecoms manufacturer, with shares publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.

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