| Africa keen to speed up plan on promotion ICTs | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 16 August 2010 09:27 |
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African countries and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are working on a programme to that effect.According to an African Union [AU] statement, communications and information technology ministers have agreed to work with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to finalise a plan on the cyber legislation. “The AU would coordinate with ITU and all development partners to continue activities on harmonising policies and regulations in Africa based on the platform created by Harmonisation of the ICT Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa project,” the statement noted. That will be done through training and knowledge sharing. The project will also support countries in creating harmonised regional telecommunication/ICT markets. It will also address the regulatory challenges facing the beneficiary countries with the goal of creating an environment that is conducive to massive investments in ICT infrastructure and ICT-enabled applications. Officials at the meeting held recently in Ghana said Africa still needed to do a lot to bridge the gap between knowledge and technology to achieve rapid and sustained economic, social and human development on the continent. “Our information and communication technology strategies and policies as well as regulatory frameworks still need to be harmonised to enable us reap the full benefits of this development," said Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. He urged all delegates from AU member countries to develop Internet services to improve national security, e-governance, tele-medicine, public safety and education. To expand ICT access, Tanzania needs to develop its backbone infrastructure. It also needs a comprehensive lifecycle assessment [LCA] of digital product and services such as downloadable music, e-books and online news. As assumptions on circumstances can play a massive role in LCAs, there is a need to establish common approaches and standards for measurement. ICT service providers should understanding how to encourage users only to download what they need and to adapt technology to deliver fewer bytes of only the most useful information. Many devices have exceptional functionality, enough to meet most user requirements for many years. However, ways should be found to mitigate the climate change impacts the industry is having. According to the International Monetary Fund, ICT investments can increase jobs, productivity, revenues and innovation and creation of high skilled and more competitive business. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
