Officially opening the 6th Information Technologies Africa 2011 Africa Conference and Exhibition at GICC yesterday, the Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Johnnie Swartz, said development of the ICT sector is of outmost importance and could facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Swartz said considering the enormous developmental challenges the continent is faced with, the interaction could help Africa unlock the vastness of the universe and empower its citizens to have a great future. He added that the areas of discussion and exhibition are useful, given Botswana's e-government path and the topics of e-health and health information, e-infrastructure, technology-enhanced learning and ICT skills, digital libraries and intelligent content. It will also feature transformation of research results into local innovation.
Through e-government, ministries and their departments will use information technologies to transform relations with citizens, businesses, visitors and the government. Through it, the Government of Botswana (GoB) hopes to enhance delivery of services to citizens, improve interactions with the business community, empower citizens through access to information and facilitate more efficient government administration.
Swartz commended the conference for providing synergies on ICT development among researchers and policymakers from leading commercial, government, industry and research institutions of Africa and Europe. He said Botswana stands to benefit through ICT promotion and possibilities of research partnerships.
The conference saw about 45 countries across Africa and Europe convene to create contacts and linkages, knowledge exchange, and sharing results and best ICT research results from Africa and Europe to ensure combined research activity and capacity. "We also hope to open up opportunities for research cooperation that is necessary to source funding, especially under the European Union Framework Programme 7," he said. The minister said Africa suffers from information poverty arising from the pervasive digital divide which in some cases is caused by restrictive access to information and lack of institutional infrastructure to facilitate access to information.
The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Carter Morupisi, said GoB is committed to embrace the digital era as reflected in the milestones achieved in the formulation of the National ICT Policy. He said government perceives ICT as a strategic tool in driving social, economic, cultural and political transformation.
IST Africa is a European Commission-funded collaborative initiative between Ireland, and 14 African countries, namely; Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal and Cameroon. The conference, which will end on May 13, has drawn a total of 500 ICT delegates, 300 from abroad. The ICT researchers will make about 160 representations on research findings from 45 countries that are in attendance.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Baboki Kayawe
Quelle/Source: Mmegi Online, 12.05.2011
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