ICTs a matter of necessity, says President Kagame
By Mercy Wambui, Communication Officer, ECA
18 November, 2005

Tunis, 18 November - Rwandan President Paul Kagame has stressed that improved access to ICTs is critical to Africa's quest to meet the MDGs.

He made the comments during a panel session on building regional partnerships, organized by ECA on the sidelines of the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis.

The session, which included Executive Secretaries from Regional Commissions in Latin America and Asia, was aimed at sharing experiences and devising new ideas for developing the information society. It also focused on implementation of the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE), which was adopted by the African ICT Ministers in September 2005, as part of the WSIS process.

“Access to ICTs is a prerequisite for realizing the MDGs,” said Kagame, who chaired the session. “It’s not a matter of choice, but a matter of necessity.”

For his part, ECA’s Executive Secretary Abdoulie Janneh urged partners to come up with mechanisms to enhance access to local communities and “to strategize on how international financial institutions can provide long-term loans for financing investment in ICT4D [ICT for Development].”

He also noted that ICTs were indispensable for regional integration and for building political consensus and advancing development.

Kagame commented that ICTs could contribute to reversing the brain drain which is crippling the continent. He added that education was the number one resource for socio-economic development.

The session called for a stronger government role in providing a policy environment that would enable the private sector to roll out ICTs in a more equitable manner.

More: http://www.uneca.org/disd