Forum on ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth
Launch of the African ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth Initiative
Addis Ababa, 14-16 March 2006

Speech by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh,
Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Representatives of the Government of Ethiopia
His Excellency, Mr Yves Boulanger, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Canada
His Excellency Ambassador Moussa Makan Camara, Permanent Representative, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Ethiopia
Dr Bernard Zoba Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African Union
Distinguished Partners in Promoting ICT for Development in Africa,
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

Firstly, let me render my sincere apologies for not being able to participate in this crucial meeting.

This is due to a longstanding commitment to be in Bangkok for a conference on LDCs, which is the mid-term review.

Nevertheless it gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome you to the ICT, Trade and Economic Growth Forum and to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is the headquarters of ECA, as well as many UN agencies.

I am particularly pleased to note that this forum is bringing together ICT experts as well representatives from Ministries of Trade, Industry and Commerce, National Central Banks, National Chambers of Commerce and the private sector to deliberate on ICTs, trade and economic growth.

As I highlighted during the eighth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union, which took place in Khartoum at the beginning of this year, Trade is pivotal for Africa’s economic growth and development. It therefore must be given the utmost priority and mainstreamed across government activity.

There is also no doubt that the harnessing of ICTs for development is a critical element of the new thinking and development action that is needed in to tackle the major challenges faced by African countries and thus should be considered as a priority. It has also been a key feature of ECA’s work, and links between ICT and economic development are now firmly on the agenda.
Many of you will remember the situation on the continent a decade ago, when the importance of seizing the opportunities offered by the information age was hardly on the development policy agenda as it is today.

Today African stakeholders have demonstrated the need to accelerate the pace of building the African Information Society, by adopting the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy, which ECA and the AU jointly launched in Tunis during the World Summit on the Information Society.

ICTs when applied to health, education and other government services, are well known, however what is less understood is the significant potential to spur new opportunities for trade and economic growth in developing countries and economies in transition.

I am reliably informed that ICTs are facilitating trade and commerce activities in Africa. For instance, the TradeNet initiative allows electronic transmission of documents between customs, freight forwarders, shipping agents etc. In the case of Mauritius this is reducing the average time for the clearance of goods from 4 hours to 15 minutes.

And in Tunisia the same initiative has reduced the processing time of trade documents from 18 to 7 days.

Time saved in trade facilitation confers enormous benefits to an economy. And in a country like Singapore such saved time translates into 1% of GDP per annum.

Consequently, I am looking forward to ECA actively implementing the various activities under the ICT, Trade and Economic Growth Initiative for that will benefit African countries.

Therefore, allow me to pose some questions that you can consider during your deliberations over the next few days

· In what ways can and does ICT improve economic performance and growth in the African context?

· How can ICT build competitiveness as well as increase growth in traditional and emerging sectors in African economies?

· How can countries increase their export base in IT-enabled Services (ITES)? What does it take and can all countries consider this option as a viable emerging sector?

· What are the requirements for a conducive regulatory environment, including infrastructure?

· What constraints face African entrepreneurs and firms in adopting ICT?

· How can we measure the impact of ICT in productivity and the productivity sectors? And what are the indicators for measurement?

If some of these questions can be answered then I am confident that we would have started on a very good note to creating the African Knowledge Economy.

I also urge African stakeholders attending this event to engage in this debate and make their voices heard in guiding ECA and its partners as beneficiaries of this programme.

Allow me at this stage to commend ECA’s partners who financially supported the planning and logistics for this event.

The first is the Canada fund for Africa and Industry Canada, who collectively represent the Government of Canada, under the Global ePolicy Resource Network (ePol-Net), of which ECA is proud to be the African regional node.

The other partners I must commend for supporting this conference is Organisation Internationale De La Francophonie (OIF) who provided sponsorship for various experts to attend this Forum.

Through this assistance we have began to implement the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy as well as the WSIS Action Plan.

I wish you all fruitful and successful deliberations and enjoy your stay with us here this week.

I thank you for your time and attention.