The US government will foster a digital ecosystem built on open, reliable, interoperable and secure internet and ICT across Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is according to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who departed the country yesterday, after giving a speech on US strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa on Monday.
Blinken’s high-level visit was the first strategic dialogue between the US and South Africa in seven years.
Science and technology, misinformation online, as well as climate change and clean energy were among the key imperatives for the US’s relationship addressed by Blinken.
The US secretary of state revealed American companies and venture capital firms are bullish about the opportunities on the continent, building undersea cables, as well as expanding the number of data centres.
Blinken’s optimistic view on more data centre investments comes as SA’s data centre market witnesses an increased adoption of cloud-based solutions among enterprises and is rapidly emerging as a centre for public and private cloud hosting.
There are more than 600 US companies operating in SA, including tech giants such as Oracle, Google, Amazon Web Services, Vantage Data Centres and Microsoft.
According to international relations and cooperation minister Dr Naledi Pandor, who hosted Blinken, there is positive growth in two-way trade between SA and the US in goods, from $13.9 billion in 2010 to $21 billion in 2021.
Google’s Equiano submarine internet cable landed on South African shores this week and is expected to be a massive job creation machine, driven by the expansion of the region’s digital economy and peripheral sectors.
South African firms have also become significant foreign investors in the US, with investments from SA in the US increasing. The US accounts for 17.4% of total South African outward foreign direct investments to the world.
“We will work to ensure affordable access to the internet, increasing data rates and lowering costs, while advocating for open technology platforms like OpenRAN to advance secure and cost-competitive telecommunications infrastructure and cloud computing,” said Blinken.
“We will expand digital democracy programming, defend against digital authoritarianism, fight back against disinformation, combat gender-based online harassment and abuse, and establish standards for responsible conduct in cyber space.
“Finally, as part of our increased focus on ensuring African youth have improved access to a broader range of skills and knowledge, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development will seek to leverage US academic institutions as well as the private sector, to facilitate the provision of online undergraduate and certificate-level courses in science, technology, engineering and math fields.”
Energy covenant
On energy, Blinken said the US will work closely with African countries as they determine how to best meet their specific energy needs, which include pursuing energy access and economic development goals through technologies such as energy-efficiency and renewable energy, as well as gas-to-power infrastructure.
“This work will be consistent with our overarching policies on climate and energy, addressing the development and geostrategic implications of the projects we choose to support. The United States will work with countries to support Just Energy transitions in line with their economic and social objectives.
“Finally, we will harness US and African private sector investment to support the energy transition, enable energy diversification, and promote energy security, climate objectives and economic development.”
Blinken added: “As Africa’s energy demands increase to support economic growth, we will use our influence, development assistance and financing to help African partners adapt and build resilience to climate impacts and promote mitigation strategies to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon future.”
In her remarks, minister Pandor said: “We have established many positive initiatives since 1994. Our areas of co-operation include trade and investment, technology transfer, education, health, environment, safety and security, institution-building and many other areas.
“South Africa continues to be confronted by deep challenges linked to our Apartheid history. They centre on three elements: inequality, poverty and unemployment. These are challenges we must address to avoid social strife.
“Our bilateral cooperation is broad and deep, and aligned to South Africa’s national priorities. We are determined and working hard, however, to set our economy on a new trajectory of growth and development to satisfy the yearning of our people for a better life.”
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