BuaNews (Tshwane)
30 July 2007
Pretoria — Government is planning to treble its implementation of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the country's rapidly expanding economy within the next two years writes Michael Appel.
Deputy Minister for Communications, Roy Padaychie was addressing a roundtable discussion under the theme: "ICT, Trade and Economic Growth" in Pretoria, Monday.
The discussion was attended by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) ICT and Science Division Dr Sizo Mhlanga, Chief Director at Electrotechnical: Trade and Investment South Africa and other ICT stakeholders.
"In our view in South Africa, we are of the opinion that we must move ICTs from policy to implementation," said Mr Padaychie.
Unemployment and underdevelopment, he said, was one of the biggest challenges facing the country, and that ICTs had a critical role to play in the eradication of these scourges.
"By 2014 we must be seen to be halving unemployment and poverty", as required under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said Mr Padaychie.
The Department of Communications focus, he said, is on establishing a national policy framework to guide the country in breaching the ICT gap which has separated developed and developing countries.
"We need to speak to the need to ensure we are able to use this framework to enable us to address the problem of underdevelopment and poverty, and bridge the technological divide", he explained.
Whilst access to ICTs is a challenge in the country, the cost of broadband, fixed line and mobile internet technology has furthered hampered development in ICT education and capacity development.
ICTs need to be integrated into the economy to make sure the market is more efficient and also opens up the economy to make sure it does not remain marginalised, said Mr Padaychie.
He noted the country's economy "is pumping" currently at about 5.23 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) requires the country to attain a 6 percent economic growth rate by 2010 and halve poverty and unemployment by 2014.
"ICTs will play a critically important role in pumping up the GDP to [the required] 6 percent," said Mr Padaychie.
The cost of broadband and telecommunication is about six to eight times more expensive than Brazil and other countries, said Mr Padaychie.
The National Communication Act of 2005 provides a regulatory framework for the convergence of broadcasting, broadcasting signal distribution and the telecommunications sectors.
"Gradually [via the Act] we are starting to see an impact on the [broadband and telecom] costs," said the deputy minister.
Mr Padaychie said government was soon going to launch a national campaign called "ICTs for all".
This campaign, he said, would create a revolution in consciousness of ICTs.
Agreeing with the deputy minister's sentiments, President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday briefed the media after the Cabinet Lekgotla saying "our guiding ICT vision is to establish South Africa as an advanced Information Society in which ICT tools and information are key drivers of economic and societal development."
The president highlighted that over the next few months governments focus will fall on expanding investment in infrastructure to increase national and international connectivity and reduce ICT costs.
He added government will also implement the Information and Society Development Plan approved early this year to increase uptake and usage of ICTs by government as a means to improve service delivery.
The state signal provider Sentech will also continue to focus on providing wireless services, and will boost the potential for all the education centres such as universities to be linked up to hospitals to allow for the sharing and wider use of skills and knowledge through ICTs.
The president also announced that government will be building "a super high capacity West Coast Marine Cable to link us to Europe and another one to [link us] to the America."
The UNECA has helped 35 African countries in developing ICT frameworks and policies.
Monday's roundtable discussion is one of six that has been launched in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.
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