Opening Remarks
Forum on ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth:
Launch of the African ICTs, Trade and Economic Growth Initiative
14-16 March 2006

By
H.E Yves Boulanger, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Canada

His Excellency State Minister for Trade and Industry,
Son Excellence M. Bernard Zoba, Commissaire des infrastructures et de l’énergie,
Monsieur le Représentant de l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie,
Mrs. Aida, Opoku-Mensah, officer in charge of DISD,
Distinguished participants,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased and honoured to be here today to welcome you to this event - another great testimonial of the excellent partnership between the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Government of Canada; a partnership formed under the e-Policy Resource Network for Africa supported by the Canada Fund for Africa -- announced in 2002 as Canada’s contribution to the G8 Africa Action Plan.

Through close cooperation between ECA and the Canadian e-Policy Resource Centre (CePRC), the e-Policy Resource Network for Africa (e-Pol-Net Africa) responds to requests for assistance from policy-makers seeking expertise and advice in the development of national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategies in areas such as e-commerce, legal and policy frameworks, telecommunications policy and regulation, internet governance, e-government and connectivity strategies.
Since the launch of ePol-NET Africa in May 2003, the ECA and the CePRC have partnered with the governments of France and the United Kingdom, as well as international organizations such as the Francophonie, the OECD and UNCTAD, to increase the scope and impact of their projects. This collaboration has taken the shape of various demand-driven workshops and seminars in locations across Africa.
This week’s event launches a very significant project that, over the course of the next 18 months, will address pan-African e-trade and economic trade policy issues. These issues are primary elements of the ECA-led African Information Society Initiative, which has been the basis of ICT activity in Africa since 1996.
As we all know, the Internet revolution is here. Indeed, with a growing number of African countries, we have long recognized that ICTs, as enabling technologies, can enhance and improve the delivery of goods and services across the economy. In health care, for example, we are supporting a project using ICTs to monitor national roll-outs of HIV/AIDS (antiretroviral) therapy to improve program delivery in Eastern and Southern Africa. We have also supported gender research in ICTs, exploring how ICTs offer women new opportunities in twelve African countries.

Through the Computers for Schools program – a continuation of a highly successful program in Canada – we have disseminated and shared the technical expertise to implement low cost networking systems in Kenya. We have also used ICTs in a program to strengthen the capacity in rural development projects to share and communicate useful experiences, knowledge and information.

In Canada, we have discovered that the successful integration of technology can either be facilitated by good, forward-looking public policy, or hampered by status quo attitudes amongst our policy makers. And we have experienced both. New policies were needed such as those that recognise and give legal status to electronic documents, and old policies needed to be updated and changed. Policy reform, in any country, is a long and difficult process. There are always competing interests looking to influence the direction of policies. There is always a lack of adequate information, both hard data and a clearly analytical understanding of the unintended results that will always happen. Canada recognizes its role as a global citizen and wants to share its experience in this area.

I applaud the policy-makers who are here today. You are setting out on a road that is not easy to travel. Together with the ECA and other participating partners in this project, we work with you on that road, provide you with a map, and a compass, but you will walk it yourself. One strategy that we learned in Canada is to identify your friends – amongst your colleagues, from the universities and from business – and get them to walk the road with you. Doing so will help you navigate the path toward success.

I wish you all the best for this forum and for the project that will arise from this meeting. I hope you profit from the discussions that you will share and learn many things in the next two days.

Thank you