The first ‘Africa Digital Rail Forum 2020’ has been hosted by Southern African Railways Association, Siemens Mobility and Huawei Technologies with stakeholders discussing digitalised railway operations.
The Wednesday online event focused on ‘Accelerating Railway Digitalization, Boosting Economic Recovery,’ with over 17,000 people from 300 companies, 22 countries present.
Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, most railway companies have been forced to stop services.
In light of this, railway operators seek the help of new technologies to navigate these difficulties.
Hao Guoqiang, President of Global Transportation Development Department in Huawei Enterprise Business Group, shared some ideas from China experience, saying, “Here I would like to share some of the lessons Huawei learnt from our clients. Lesson 1: The pandemic will accelerate the digital transformation of the rail industry. Lesson 2: After the pandemic, the rail industry will rapidly help economic recovery, requiring advanced and unified technology. With these lessons in mind, Huawei is addressing how railways can use new technologies to speed up digitalisation while helping customers at the same time. The new technology like 5G, AI will be used in the rail industry.”
Dr. Joice Chidora, Finance Director of SARA, also shared some thoughts on the issue, pointing out that with the advent of the new norm of doing business due to COVID-19, railways need to embrace and catch up with technological advancement in the areas of digital technologies.
Fang Jun, Senior Transportation Solution Manager in Huawei Enterprise Business Group, explained further, “The COVID-19 epidemic is surely a challenge but also an opportunity for the railway industry. The ‘new normal’ state of the epidemic poses new requirements including agile business deployment. This further accelerates the digital transformation trend of railway industry.”
Huawei, a leading global information and communication technology solutions provider for transportation, said it had provided service for over 50 railway builders and operators on 50,000 km globally and that it “has been actively involved” in the railway modernisation process in Africa and is dedicated to provide world-class technologies and services for local communications.
Huawei’s digital railway solution has been serving in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and other countries.
