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ICT development is a necessity for
Africa - Kufuor
Accra, July 13,
Ghanadot/GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Friday said
Information Communication Technology ICT was no longer a
matter of choice but a necessity for enhancing innovation,
competitiveness and modernization.
This, he said, would usher in opportunities in the
achievement of the collective objectives in the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) to bridge the gap between the rich
and poor.
Speaking at the 7th annual ICT African Investment Summit in
Accra, President Kufuor said the issue of digital divide was
a big challenge facing Africa that required redoubling of
efforts to minimize the growing divide as well as harvesting
the benefits of ICT to improve the living conditions of the
people.
The four-day summit, which is being organized by Kemilinks
International, a global consultancy firm in collaboration
with Ministry of Communications, is on the theme,
"Strategies for Low Cost Broadband Access in Africa".
The summit, among other things, seeks to come out with
strategies to harness the enormous ICT opportunities in
Africa to the rapid development of the continent with ICT
being the driving force.
President Kufuor said in the 21st century, product processes
as well as management were all being driven by network of
digital highways and ICT value added services.
"It is precisely because of these challenge that we require
the combined effort of our governments, business community,
the academia and civil society, the kind of mix that we have
assembled in this summit, to encourage public-private
partnership in addressing the issues involved."
President Kufuor noted that it was a great encouragement
that the people of Africa were determined to work together
and tackle the challenges facing the continent.
The President said Africa continued to trail behind the
globe on all major indicators such as GDP, per capita, tele-density,
human development index, literacy, child mortality and life
expectancy, despite the fact that Africa was one of the
fastest growing continents in the field of ICT.
President Kufuor said the government of Ghana on her part
considered ICT as a very important sector that was critical
in the socio-economic development.
Ghana, he said, had therefore developed ICT for development
policy with strategies and plans that were designed to
specifically accelerate the country's development process
towards the realization of the vision to transform Ghana
into information-rich knowledge-based society and economy by
the year 2015.
Dr. Hamadou Toure, Secretary General of International
Telecommunication Union, mentioned three priorities for the
Accra summit as bridging the digital divide, cyber security
and emergency communication in times of natural disasters.
He noted that there were three billion ICT users in the
world and by the year 2015 the other half would have been
connected but Africa formed just a fraction of it.
The Accra summit and other upcoming ones would ensure that
the appropriate frameworks and strategies were put in place
to connect Africa.
"There is the need for a global alliance to ensure cyber
security and also development of communications technologies
for disasters and these are the other critical issues that
will be addressed in subsequent summits," he added.
GNA
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