TV service firm helps Africa

► Opportunities remain open to Chinese companies

A Chinese entrepreneur said on Friday Africa still offers huge potentials, and further economic ties between China and African countries would help tap into them.

Beijing-based StarTimes Group, a digital TV services provider, has been investing in the African market since 2008 starting with Rwanda, aiming to enable every African family to afford and have access to digital TV.

“When I first came to Africa in 2002, I learned that local TV operators charged as much as $200 in installation fees, plus licensing fee ranging from $47 to $130 per month, which was outrageous. Local people could not afford that,” Pang Xinxing, chairman of StarTimes, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Friday.

“Making digital TV popular in Africa is very important to drive social progress, but subscribers should not be forced to pay too much,” Pang said.

StarTimes’ licensing fee is as low as under $3 per month, Pang said, while subscribers can have access to over 480 channels, including international ones, Chinese mainstream media, African channels and 43 company-owned channels.

So far, it has over 20 million subscribers in more than 20 African countries.

Pang said the “access to satellite TV for 10,000 villages” project entrusted to the StarTimes by the Chinese government will be completed by the deadline.

The project, which was borne out of the resolutions of the 2015 summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in South Africa, in which the Chinese government pledged to provide satellite TV in 10,112 African villages, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018.

“In Africans’ eyes, goods and services provided by Chinese firms are not only cheap but of high quality, quite different from years ago when they suffered a low quality image,” Pang noted.

StarTimes achievement can be attributed to its localization strategy.

“The most important thing is respecting local regulations, culture and customs, which is much easier said than done,” Pang explained.

Three-fourths of its 5,000 staff in China and Africa are foreigners.

Many opportunities remain open to Chinese companies in the African market under the framework of the Belt and Road initiative and the historical friendship between China and Africa, according to Pang.

“Taxation and business mechanisms in Africa are improving, and the land offers huge demographic and resource dividends,” he said on Friday.

Pang is confident in a new round of African economic development after struggling for three years.

“China-African cooperation is a long-term trend,” he said.