Chinese telecoms firm for closer links with Tanzania



China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation (CITCC) has said it will continue working with foreign customers and local partners to establish long-term and stable relations.
CITCC Deputy Director Haijun Jiang said in an interview with this paper early this week that the move would enable the company to build a stable information platform for communication between China and other countries, including Tanzania.

“We want to enhance cordial working relations with all countries we are operating in and extend more cooperation with others,” he said, adding that they currently boast business relations with more than 60 multinational corporations in 35 countries worldwide.

“We are all over the world providing customers, among them telecommunication operators, government organisations, manufacturers of a wide range of equipment as well as various other enterprises,” explained the CITCC executive.

Other services provided by the firm include telecommunication network construction, business process outsourcing, information and communication technology (ICT) system integration, telecommunication operation management consulting and training.

The company has so far undertaken several projects in several countries in such areas as telecommunication construction and cooperation in enhancing capacity building for various enterprises.

By the latest count, these countries were Tanzania, Mali, Zambia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Benin Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.

The company’s branch in Tanzania was established in 2007 and has had a successful time. 

It is entering the third phase of its operations, one of its undertakings being a national broadband backbone infrastructure project.

National backbone transmission network projects cover 21 regions in Tanzania, and the company is determined to implement more elsewhere and thus be involved in three loops covering regional as well as international links.

It is anticipated that Tanzania will use the completed backbone network in part to enhance Internet applications and therefore meet the interconnection needs of government agencies, schools, enterprises and a wide range of public institutions.

The government is keen on uniting existing telecom operators of telecom, power, natural gas and mobile communication under a drive led by the Communication, Science and Technology ministry.

The aim is to boost and optimise the use of existing telecommunication line and construct backbone transmission networks until the entire country is covered.

More than 100 Chinese workers and at least 9,000 others, including some 1,000 Tanzanians, are employed indirectly in the construction of fibre optic cables.

CITCC is a subsidiary company of China Telecom Group and is a leader in the provision of technology used in the integration of telecommunication systems. It is strong in engineering, designs, consultancy and communication network integration, with import and export trade as an auxiliary service.