Vestberg, in his meeting with President Lee explained that his company will open a R&D Center in Korea for joint research with local companies, using Korea as the test-bed in fields of green technology and 4th generation IT technology. The company would also increase the number of employees in Korean branch from current 80 to some 1,000.

The cooperation between Ericsson and Korean companies is likely to further upgrade the broadcasting network of the country and help advance to the world market. The mutual cooperation between Wibro technology headed by Korea and Long Term Evolution Technology (LTE) headed by Ericcson, especially is likely to make the two sides lead the 4th generation (4G) IT market which is only in its birth stage.

The prospect is expected to attract the participation of some of the high-ranking businesses in Korea including Samsung and LG Electronics.

The President Lee, openly welcoming the large scale investment, expressed his wish to see Ericcson’s active cooperation with not only big companies but also with mid and small companies that have potential. Lee stressed that he would make all efforts to realize fair competition between local and overseas companies in Korea.

Prior to his meeting with Lee, Vestberg also met with Choi See-joong the chairman of the Korea Communications Committee whose trip to Sweden coincided with the president. Choi also looked around Kista Science Park known as the Silicon Valley of Europe.

Vestberg lauded Korea for being one of the most wired nations in the world and for its pursue of low carbon green growth policy, thus forming an excellent test-bed for information technology.

After the talks Ericcson and KT (Korea Telecom) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Choi and Sweden’s Vice Minister of Trade Gunnar Wieslander watching. The MOU of the two sides stipulates joint development of green mobile technology, joint establishment and operation of domestic pilot-network to assure quality and improvement and mutual cooperation to advance into the world market.

The latest momentum is also likely to help with other foreign investments in Korea.

Under the framework agreement signed between Ericsson and China Mobile, Ericsson continues to deliver green solutions to support China Mobile’s network energy optimization and CO2 emission reduction target. Ericsson will also expand GSM/GPRS network coverage and capacity in 18 provinces in China with related services. In addition, Ericsson also supports China Mobile’s 3G network build-out by providing a wide range of innovative TD-SCDMA products and solutions. 
 
Under the framework agreement signed between Ericsson and China Unicom, Ericsson will not only become the main supplier to upgrade China Unicom’s GSM networks in 10 provinces, but also provide the operator with GSM/WCDMA core network and/or wireless access system in 15 provinces, including transmission, IP and value-added service platform. Ericsson’s strong local support team with global experience plays a key role in supporting China Unicom in launching the world’s largest WCDMA commercial networks.
 
Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson Greater China, says, “China’s 3G market is growing rapidly and the world is watching closely. As the world’s undisputed leader of mobile communications technology, Ericsson will spare no efforts in supporting the development of China’s telecom industry with our global expertise and technology leadership.”
 
“Ericsson has been devoted to supporting the development of China’s telecom industry. The signing of the 2009 framework agreements today further enhances the position of Ericsson as the leading mobile communications supplier in China market. Ericsson will work together with China’s operators to ensure rewarding new user experience for Chinese consumers in the 3G era and we are fully confident that we can achieve this objective,” says Olsson.

A recent Global Humanitarian Forum report estimated that climate change is responsible for some 300,000 deaths each year and over USD 100 billion worth of economic losses, mainly because of shocks to health and agricultural productivity. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for close to a quarter of these losses, and is the region at the most immediate risk of droughts and floods. Agricultural yields in some areas are expected to fall by 50 percent as early as 2020.

The Global Humanitarian Forum initiated this collaboration in response to Africa’s severe gap in weather information highlighted at the Forum’s first annual event. The members of the initiative will deploy up to 5,000 new automatic weather observation stations across Africa, intending to provide a massive increase in crucial information to predict and manage climate shocks.

Africa has a network eight times below the WMO minimum recommended standard, and less than 200 weather stations that meet WMO observation requirements, compared to several thousand each in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia. The 5,000 weather stations will be installed at new and existing mobile network sites throughout the continent over coming years, in what promises to save lives and bring increased economic opportunity to tens of millions of people.

An innovative public-private partnership on a unique scale, the initiative relies on the core business of telecom. Ericsson, the world’s leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services, will tap relationships with African operators such as Zain, who will host the weather equipment at mobile network sites being rolled out across Africa. Achieving the 5,000 target would require additional operator commitment and external financing.

The launch was held at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, where Kofi Annan said: “The world’s poorest are also the world’s most vulnerable when it comes to the impact of climate change, and the least equipped to deal with its consequences. Today you find cell phone towers in almost every part of Africa. We have never been able to establish weather monitoring on that scale, until now. By bringing together the expertise and resources of different public and private actors, this project may help to save lives and improve the livelihoods of communities in Africa living on the frontlines of climate change.”

Also present at the launch, Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, said: “As the leading provider of telecommunications in Africa and active on the continent for more than 100 years, we are driving the rapid expansion of mobile communications. This initiative presents a unique opportunity to simultaneously help mitigate the impact of climate change for those most affected and to strengthen weather networks and systems across the continent. We look forward to having more operators come on board to realize the full impact of the initiative.”

Mobile networks provide the necessary connectivity, power and security to sustain the weather equipment. Through its Mobile Innovation Center in Africa, Ericsson will also develop mobile applications to help communicate weather information developed by national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) via mobile phones. Mobile operators will maintain the automatic weather stations and assist in the transmission of the data to national met services.

The initial deployment, already begun in Zain networks, focuses on the area around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The first 19 stations installed will double the weather monitoring capacity of the Lake region.

Zain CEO Saad Al Barrak commented: “It is truly wonderful that many communities across Africa will now have accurate meteorological information readily available. Here we can see how mobile communications can play a key role in helping to improve both the quality of life and safety for people in the remotest parts of the world.”

Approximately 70 percent of Africans rely on farming for their livelihood, or close to 700 million people, and over 95 percent of Africa’s agriculture depends on rainfall. Changing weather patterns due to climate change render obsolete traditional knowledge relating to agriculture otherwise reliable for centuries, creating a great need for meteorological information.

Also present at the Geneva launch was Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the WMO, the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on Weather, Climate and Water, which is coordinating involvement of NMHSs participating in the initiative. Jarraud said:

“For food production, almost every decision is linked to weather, climate and water parameters. We see the Weather Info for All initiative as a major pan-African effort to empower our 188 Members to provide enhanced weather information and services. Working through NMHSs, WMO will identify weather information needs, advise on technical requirements and help disseminate the information. This initiative may prove to be one of the most important for African meteorology in decades. The project will also therefore support the goals of the WMO-organized World Climate Conference-3, to be held from 31 August to 4 September 2009 in Geneva.”

The initiative will have an impact far beyond agriculture and disaster preparation as it also includes assistance to national meteorological services in training and technical capacities. Better weather information will also make possible the development of services, such as microinsurance, which can be based on weather data indexes, such as rainfall. The initiative will also increase the volume of information useful for scientists, as well as for the water, transport and energy industries.

While the weather information gap is particularly acute in Africa, the initiative would be open to later expansion into other affected regions.

A further partner in the initiative is Columbia University’s Earth Institute, headed by Jeffrey Sachs. To help with distribution to some of the most vulnerable and poorest parts of Africa and in partnership with the Earth Institute, automatic weather stations will also be installed in Millennium Villages – rural development projects spread throughout 10 countries and focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals. By leveraging the expertise of Earth Institute scientists on climatology, agriculture, and health, the project hopes to identify key areas where there can be an immediate impact contributing a sizable knowledge bank to the effort.

“The Earth Institute is a proud partner in this highly innovative program,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the institute. “Once the switch is turned on, a flow of extensive weather data will become available throughout Africa, with benefits extending from the national policy makers to the smallholder farmers. The Millennium Villages is a perfect launch site for the practical and timely application of weather data to bolster resilience and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa.”