by Xinhua writer Lyu Tianran
KIGALI, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Localization of StarTimes in Africa has benefitted African countries in various areas, and is also beneficial to StarTimes, President of StarTimes Pang Xinxing told Xinhua on Wednesday in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda.
Currently, StarTimes have more than 4,300 staff in Africa, of which about 96 percent are Africans.
On August 26, 2008, with the successful opening ceremony of the company's first project in Rwanda, it opened the prelude of its digital television operation in Africa. The company now has branches in 30 African countries with nearly 10 million customers in Africa.
StarTimes's investments in Africa have directly created more than 4,000 job opportunities for the youth in Africa. It has created another 50,000 job opportunities in Africa through the companies' agents, Pang told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of YouthConnekt Africa Summit.
From our own experience, if a company wants to gain development in Africa, it should make efforts in promoting Africa's social development, quality of African people, and also make efforts in creating employment and government revenues, said Pang, adding that it should have a sense of social responsibility and respect local employees.
Through localization, StarTimes created lots of jobs for African people, especially the youth, and also gained development, said the president.
"StarTimes will continue to increase its investment in Africa, which will bring more jobs to African people."
Pang said that both China and Africa have many good film and television programs, and there is huge demand for translating and dubbing.
So, the company's next plan is to create employment opportunities for the youth in Africa through paid crowdsourcing on internet, he said.
Pang also expressed gratefulness to Rwanda where the company started its business in Africa. "President Paul Kagame gave StarTimes' first investing opportunity in Africa, and gave us support in popularizing digital television in the east Africa and even the whole continent, we will further increase our investment in Rwanda."
The three-day summit is organized by the government of Rwanda, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It attracted about 2,800 participants including top executives from multinational companies that operate in Africa, leaders of civil society organizations, Africa's development partners, members of the academia, successful entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs, members of startup companies, artists and youth opinion leaders from 90 countries across Africa and beyond to interact and discuss on enhancing the potential of the youth in Africa, according to the organizers.
Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma, one of the world's leading entrepreneurs, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, is among key guest speakers at the summit.
