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Corporate Social Responsibility
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12.04.2007 - 08:00am ET
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IBM Plans Investment Increase in Sub-Saharan Africa
Targets Development of New Markets, Skills Over Next Two Years
(CSRwire) JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - 04 Dec 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a
series of investments in Sub-Saharan Africa that are designed to accelerate
development of new markets, enablement of crucial ICT skills and creation
of new jobs.
The company, which has operated in Africa for nearly six decades, expects
to increase its investment by more than $US120 million (more than R820
million) over the next two years. In the coming year, IBM expects to hire
up to 100 students from Sub-Saharan universities to meet the growing
demand in services, global delivery and software development.
"The Sub-Saharan African market is poised for double-digit growth flowing
from the development and expansion of telecommunications networks, power
grids and transport infrastructure," said Mark Harris, Managing Director,
IBM South and Central Africa. "Private and public sector investment in the
region is transforming the ability of the market to participate in the
global economy."
Among IBM's market commitments is the creation of an Africa Innovation
Centre that will house the continent's first High Performance On Demand
Solutions Lab (HiPODS). Small businesses, entrepreneurs, business partners
and other clients will benefit from the lab's advanced software development
capabilities as well as access to high-end servers and storage equipment.
The African Innovation Centre will also build custom solutions to drive
automation, virtualisation and standards into clients' business and IT
infrastructures.
The South Africa lab joins a global network of seven specialised IBM
facilities, including sites in Brazil, China and India, as well as Japan,
the United Kingdom and the United States. It is scheduled to open during
the second quarter of next year.
Further, IBM has named senior executive Dr. Robert Mayberry general
manager and vice president, emerging markets, Sub-Saharan Africa. Based in
Johannesburg, Dr. Mayberry is responsible for designing and executing IBM's
strategy for expanding into new markets in the region. He holds a PhD in
Computer Science and has extensive experience across various industry
sectors and IBM businesses managing strategic alliances, mergers and
acquisitions, software engineering for application development, as well as
intelligent devices and wireless networks.
"Africa is an increasingly attractive investment environment for global
companies such as IBM," said Dr. Mayberry. "IBM is committed to being part
of Africa's economic transformation into a major player in the global
market place."
These moves build on other recent investments IBM has made in Sub-Saharan
Africa, including:
The Integrated Delivery Centre (IDC), in which IBM has invested $120
million since 2005. Through the IDC, IBM has created 1500 new jobs, and is
servicing more than 300 global and regional clients from Johannesburg.
A $15 million Business Continuity and Recovery Services facility --
which has boosted IBM's service delivery capabilities in a way unrivalled
in the Sub-Saharan African region.
IBM recently launched the Small Business Toolkit (http://southafrica.smetoolkit.org)
in South Africa. The goal of the free online resource is to increase the
reach of local small business into the global economy by improving the
productivity, efficiency and capacity of the estimated 600,000 active
small businesses in South Africa as well as improve their access to
capital and new markets.
IBM currently has formal university partnerships and training
programmes with Vaal University of Technology and Tshwane University of
Technology in South Africa, yielding jobs for more than 180 IT
graduates.
In addition to its South African offices, IBM maintains offices in Nigeria
and Kenya, and operates in 18 other countries across the continent via
business partners.
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