The Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Pelonomi Venson, said at a Botsnet fifth birthday party that "Botswana has a very good ICT infrastructure but it is not fully utilised". Thus, the government planned to embark on an e-government initiative to bring services closer to the people and hopefully, at the same time, act as a catalyst for the public and the private sector to embrace ICT, said the minister.
"Many communities, particularly in rural areas, would benefit significantly from on-line access to government information on health and jobs, as well as services such as on-line licences and applications for permits." Venson said that Botsnet, as an ICT company that provides Internet services, should be engaged and be called on to help the ministry achieve its Vision 2016 pillar of "an educated and informed nation".
Botsnet has recently launched the PC Bundle, thus increasing PC ownership and Internet uses in homes, said Venson.
She said the development of the National ICT Policy for Botswana, named Maitlamo to reflect "our commitment of ICT for national development," was progressing well.
She urged all Internet service providers and the rest of the corporate world to promote the deployment of on-line services that are tailored to the needs of the population.
Her ministry, Venson said, was aware of the hurdles to drive up Internet uptake such as the high cost of PCs and lack of electricity in most rural areas.
The other problem, she said was that Internet was still accessed predominantly through dial-up and that the high telephone bills kept most people away.
She added that Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) is planning to reduce wholesale bandwidth prices for Internet service providers.
The minister said 2005 would be an important year for Botswana and the ICT fraternity because the second World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR 2005) would be held in Gaborone.
"This is the state-of-art ICT conference which will concentrate on specific uses of the ICT to accelerate economic progress in developing countries.
"I hope that Botswana companies and Batswana professionals would take the opportunity to showcase ICT capabilities and at the same time establish contacts with leading international ICT experts attending the conference," said Venson.
Quelle: Republic of Botswana, 30.11.2004
