BuaNews (Tshwane)
Michael Appel
25 February 2008
Pretoria — Finland has pledged €12 million in development aid towards enhancing the delivery and implementation of Information Communication Technology infrastructure (ICT) in South Africa.
Through the Department of Communications, Finland has extended development aid totalling some €12 million to be used in the roll out of ICT infrastructure over the next three years. South Africa's Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Finland's Minister Counsellor Marjaana Sall on Monday signed an agreement on the Provincial Information Society Strategy Programme.
The strategy - dubbed INSPIRE - is aimed at demonstrating the opportunities that ICTs can unlock in terms of accelerating social and economic development at a provincial level. "Finland has come onboard at a time that is very crucial to us, and the assistance you [as the government of Finland] will help with the uptake and acceleration of ICTs in provinces," said Minister Matsepe-Casaburri, Monday.
The minister said the ICT development aid will go towards two of South Africa's provinces, Limpopo and the Northern Cape, to strengthen the capacity of the provincial government to infuse their Information Society and Development (ISAD) plan.
The Finnish minister in turn, expressed satisfaction at the agreement.
"We are very happy to be here today to sign this agreement and share our experiences," said Ms Sall.
"South Africa has a very special place in our development aid agency, and South Africa is the only country in the world that we have such a big agreement with in this [ICT] portfolio."
The Finnish minister added that their embassy in Pretoria has an ICT development counsellor who will be engaging with government to assist in any way possible with the roll out of the strategy.
The programme for the agreement evolved out of the Presidential National Commission (PNC) on ISAD's review of international best practices and the recognition of Limpopo and the Northern Cape as early adopters of the information society.
The Department of Communication views the role of information society development as critical to both economic and social development in the country.
"Improved access to information also has an impact on the awareness, education, and social and cultural development of the public," indicated the department.
The PNC has a leading and supervising role in the information society development in South Africa and aims to achieve amongst, other things, to ensure that the country does not fall behind the rest of the world as a result of the digital divide.
The PNC also endeavours to define and establish a long term vision for the country's Inclusive Information Society programme, as well as to optimise the pace and extent of addressing South Africa's developmental challenges. South Africa enjoys excellent relations with all the Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Flowing from the strong grassroots support in these countries for democratisation in South Africa, relations have been established in virtually every field at both public and official levels.
The scope of Nordic development co-operation is broad and has benefited civil society and the spheres of government. Bilateral consultations between Finland and South Africa, held biannually, took place in Pretoria in April 2005.
Relations in the international arena have seen close co-operation on multilateral issues. The Nordic countries are strong supporters of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, NEPAD.
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