KT chairman Lee Suk-chae on Wednesday met Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba to discuss future partnerships following the ongoing project “Digital Gabon,” KT officials said.

The president was visiting Korea to participate in the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit that ended its two-day run on Tuesday.

Together with Samsung C&T, KT Networks, a network system unit of KT, has been carrying out a project that aims to build the administrative network infrastructure for the Gabonese government since 2011.

During their meeting held at the Hotel Shilla in central Seoul on Wednesday, the KT chief reaffirmed that the project would be completed as scheduled by February in 2013, proposing follow-up projects with the African country.

“KT hopes Gabon becomes a leading country in the social and technological development of the Western Africa region as it shares KT’s experience and techniques to realize a ‘smart society,’” Lee said.

KT, the nation’s second-largest telecom carrier, has been recently stepping up efforts to expand its presence in Africa.

In Rwanda, the company completed the WiFi network and has offered the service since November. Earlier it also acquired 20 percent of shares in South Africa’s largest fixed-line operator Telkom last year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)