Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 10136 |
| Work Detail | Chinese company, Yangtze Optics Africa Cable, is taking South Africans to China for skills development in fibre cable manufacturing. In May, ITWeb reported that Yangtze invested R150 million to construct a fibre cable manufacturing plant in SA. A further R150 million investment is expected in the machinery and other equipment at the facility located within the Dube TradePort in KwaZulu-Natal. This investment is seen to have the potential to significantly bolster SA's efforts to grow exports and expand communications infrastructure. The Chinese company roped in JSE-listed Mustek as its broad-based black economic empowerment partner. The plant has manufacturing capacity of more than one million fibre kilometres, and will supply cable to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service providers, private sector companies, mobile telecommunications providers, and the public sector. The company has now revealed that eight of the 120 South Africans to be employed by Yangtze have travelled to China for skills transfer and training on fibre cable manufacturing in preparation for the launch of the plant in January 2017. The training programme covers the full spectrum of fibre cable manufacturing, from optic fibre colouring, secondary coating, stranding and sheathing, to cable testing and quality control. On completion of their training, the team will come back to South Africa to train the rest of the teams that will run the South African plant. Yangtze has committed itself to a four-year skills development plan to expand local skills in specialist roles in optical fibre cable manufacturing. Speaking about the training experience, Velile Mngonyama, production supervisor at Yangtze Optics Africa Cable, says although he has training and experience in cable production, the precision and detail required in optical fibre is on a much larger scale. "Although the processes for copper cable manufacturing and optical fibre are similar, the technical specifications and applications for optical fibre are totally different. The experience has been an eye-opener and we cannot wait to come back home to share what we have learnt with the rest of the team in South Africa." "While copper cables have been a reliable medium in the past, optical fibre is the future. With speeds and capacity of orders of magnitude higher than copper cables, optical fibre will definitely change the way in which people and businesses connect," says Pieter Viljoen, CEO of Yangtze Optics Africa Cable. He notes that, in the next few years, fibre optic network rollout will increase significantly, as developing countries invest in fibre networks as these are faster, and provide much more reliable connections than copper. "With increased demand for fibre optic networks, there will be a need to train local people to set up fibre optical local manufacturing plants to supply the anticipated huge potential market," Viljoen adds. Yangtze is targeting SA's growing fibre market, with many companies jostling to lay fibre to boost Internet connectivity. According to BMI-TechKnowledge, FTTH could reach more than 360 000 active subscriptions in SA by 2019, with the majority of the growth coming from subscribers in residential suburbs, where much of the recent action has been focused. |
| Country | South Africa , Southern Africa |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Entry Date | 15 Oct 2016 |
| Source | http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=155688 |
