A high-level conference aimed at providing Africa with greater access to information and communication technology (ICT) will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in late October, the United Nations said on Monday.
The Connect Africa Summit scheduled from October 29-30 aims to mobilize the human, technical and financial resources needed to close the major gaps in Africa's ICT infrastructure, including broadband, the UN's South African office said in a statement.
Participants are expected to showcase ICT and African development projects to potential partners and donors and announce concrete initiatives to connect Africa, whose ICT industry's development still lags far behind other regions.
The conference will focus on requirements such as expanding broadband infrastructure, wireless and mobile access technologies, creating the right business environment, developing an ICT-savvy workforce and promoting innovative financing, said the statement.
The UN said Africa has fallen back in overall connectivity, although investment in its ICT infrastructure has improved dramatically in recent years, reaching 8 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up from 3.5 billion dollars in 2000, and growth in mobile phones has increased by as much as 400 percent.
Fewer than 4 percent of Africans have internet access; broadband penetration remains below 1 percent; and 70 percent of all Internet traffic within Africa is re-routed outside the continent, driving up costs for businesses and consumers.
"We need a Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa," Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), was quoted as saying by the UN statement.
The event is being organized by the ITU, the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, the World Bank and the African Union, in partnership with the African Development Bank, the African Telecommunication Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
More than 500 participants from India, the European Commission, the G8, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Arab countries, as well as from major ICT companies, are expected to attend the summit.
A meeting of African ICT ministers on October 27-28, also in Kigali, will precede the conference.
Source: Xinhua
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