by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH Africa, despite a challenging year (2020), has improved in the development of the artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IOT) technology enablers.
However, progress in Broadband and Cloud are stagnant.
This is according to the Huawei Global Connectivity Index 2020 report.
South Africa is ranked 56th out of 79 countries in the latest Huawei Global Connectivity Index 2020 report.
This ranking places the country towards the bottom end of the 37 adopter nations, below Vietnam, but above Peru – both new graduates to the Adopter category.
In terms of the four Technology Enablers identified by the report, South Africa showed slight improvements in AI with the score increasing by 3 points from 21 points in 2019.
Similarly, a three-point improvement was noted in IoT from 24 points in 2019.
Broadband and Cloud showed no movement from the ratings of the previous year.
Broadband held firm at 36 points in the 2020 assessment against an average for all countries of 62 points. Cloud scored 48 points in the 2020 report against an average of 42 points.
“As ICT permeates industries, digital transformation has become unanimously agreed on among countries and industries,” Chen Li, Huawei Marketing and Solutions Director, South Africa, said.
“For the first time, we extended our research from countries to industries,” he added.
“We also suggested digital transformation paths for countries and enterprises in different stages to build future-oriented economic resilience.”
– CAJ News