'Global Connectivity for Africa' kicks off Tuesday
Addis Ababa, 29 May 1998 - Some 400 market leaders in the field of telecommunications will gather here on Tuesday 2 June 1998 to discuss and examine projects that can impact positively on the growth and developmental impact of public telecommunication networks in Africa.'Global Connectivity for Africa' is hosted and sponsored by ECA, the WorldBank Group, the Information for Development Programme (infoDEV), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of the Netherlands. Private sector sponsors include the WorldSpace Corporation, Siemens, Teledesic, RASCOM and Iridium.The three-day conference, the first regional follow-up to last year's Toronto Global Knowledge Conference, will be prefaced on Monday 1 June by ministerial meeting convened by Mr. Abdulmejid Hussein, Ethiopia's Minister of Transport and Telecommunications and South African Minister of Communication and Broadcasting, Mr. Jay Naidoo.
The ministerial meeting, a follow-up to the just-ended Telecom Africa '98 conference in Johannesburg,will focus on telecommunications development policies in Africa.The conference will provide a unique opportunity for participants - who will include more than 30 African telecommunications ministers, representative of civil society as well as private African and non-African corporations and operators - to engage in frank dialogue on the issues and options of connectivity open to the continent and the value of information for African terms of trade and commerce. It will evolve concrete proposals for cooperation in the telecommunications sector towards overcoming Africa's development challenges.
The gathering is expected to call for revisions in tariffs and enhanced regional cooperation, while examining the role of the private sector as well as the question of service provision. Issues to be raised in panel discussions will include:
One of the issues the conference will look into will be ways in which governments can accommodate them. There is a general consensus that while the advent of new technologies might be seen by governments as a challenge to national operators and regulatory authorities, in many cases accommodating these technologies does not require far reaching restructuring of the sector policies.Against a backdrop of control-oriented national policies, the conference will emphasize the need for governments to ensure wide and unbridled access to information for citizens through universal service, while maintaining quality.
On the question of liberalization, the conference is expected to call on governments to consider:
According to one conference background paper,Africa can take advantage of the increase in the number of international infrastructure providers, to choose the best means suited to its socio-economic environment to achieve global connectivity.In organizing this conference, ECA's Development Information Services Division (DISD) is promoting the objectives of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), a far-reaching blueprint for the building of a development-serving information superhighway mandated to ECA as lead agency by its Conference of Ministers in May 1996.(END)
For the Programme, Issues Paper, and other background Conference information, please visit: http://www.un.org/depts/eca/globalc/index.htm or http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/globalc/index.htm
The sites will be updated regularly during the conference.
Otherwise, please contact:Peter K.A. da Costa Senior Communication Adviser UN Economic Commission for Africa P.O. Box 3001 (official) or 3005 (personal)Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 (direct)or: +251-1-51 72 00 ext. 35486Fax: +251-1-51-22-33E-Mail:ipspdc@harare.iafrica.comdaCosta@un.orgecainfo@uneca.org