Deputy minister of communications, Radhakrishna (Roy) Padayachie, will attend a China-Africa summit for ministers of communications in Beijing, China, from 9 to 19 December.
The Ministry of Communications says the summit, to be attended by up to 90 delegates from 14 African countries, aims to enhance relationships and further co-operation with China.
SA is viewed as being the most advanced in the areas of communication and will be expected to share its experience with its counterparts from the rest of the continent, says the ministry.
The summit is co-hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and is aimed at strengthening bi-lateral co-operation between China and SA, and addressing matters of trade.
The participation of several African ministers in the summit also provides an opportunity to discuss telecommunication developments in Nepad (New Economic Plan for African Development).
The South African Department of Communications and its Chinese counterpart, the MII, share a number of commonalities. Both oversee developments within the ICT sectors and the postal services. Both ministries are heavily involved in approving commercial transactions, such as investors within state, or partly state-owned companies, and both have the mandate for ensuring rural access to telecommunications services.
In 1999, the MII fostered the creation of a competitor to state-owned China Telecom with China Unicom, which has some foreign investment, in order to increase consumer access to advanced technology.
MII now oversees five state-owned companies: China Telecom (the landline business); China Mobile; China Satellite; China Unicom, which runs the paging systems; and China Netcom, tasked with establishing a broadband IP network.
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