Mbeki hosts global ICT gurus
6 September 2004
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday hosted the fourth meeting of the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development in Hoedspruit, Limpopo.
The council brought together 10 international business leaders and key ministers, directors-general and special advisers to Mbeki.
The forum discussed developments in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in South Africa, progress made in South Africa's priority areas for ICT interventions, and the ICT programme of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)>
The delegates included business gurus Henry Chasia, executive deputy chairman of the Nepad eAfrica Commission; Esther Dyson, chairperson of EDventure Holdings; Reza Mahdavi, vice-president of EMEA Cisco Systems Europe; Carly Forina, chief executive of Hewlett Packard; and Mark Shuttleworth, director of HBD Ventures.
Others included Sergio Giacoletto, vice-president of Oracle
Corporation; Emre Berkin, chairman of Microsoft Middle-East and Africa; Les Hayman, chief executive of Global Human Resources, SAP AG; Christian Lacroix, vice-president for Southern and Eastern Africa, Alcatel; and Hans Ulrich Maerki, chairman of the board of IBM EMEA.
The South African delegation included Ministers Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburi (Communications), Mandisi Mpahlwa (Trade and Industry), Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi (Public Service and Administration), Thoko Didiza (Agriculture and Land Affairs), and Naledi Pandor (Education).
Ministers Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (Health), Pallo Jordan (Arts and Culture), Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula (Home Affairs), and Deputy Ministers Jabu Moleketi (Finance) and Roy Padayachee (Communications) also formed part of the government delegation.
The meeting agreed that information and communication technology would play a key role in the unfolding Nepad programme, with computer giant Hewlett Packard set to help accelerate the empowerment of
previously excluded communities.
Florina announced that Hewlett Packard would join the Nepad initiative as an information technology partner to create opportunities for ordinary people and small enterprises in rural areas to access software and other technologies.
Florina said her company was already committed to a continent-wide project aimed at ensuring that selected schools in 20 nations were ICT-enabled and literate.
She expressed particular enthusiasm for a pilot programme launched in the Mokgalakwena region of Limpopo, saying the capabilities of a number of technologically empowered individuals there had already impressed the project leaders.
Welcoming Florina's announcement, Mbeki said the American company would be joining a growing consortium of companies, which includes Intelsat, Microsoft, MTN and other well-known names, involved in the initiative.
"The great challenge before us is to make ordinary people in Africa aware of the
opportunities available to them through modern technology", Mbeki said.
"Many residents in communities in rural areas still do not have electricity, and the majority of those who do, cannot speak English, so they are still excluded from a lot of technology", Mbeki added.
The possibility of empowering people to access software in their own language was one of the topics raised during the council meeting, he pointed out.
Mbeki emphasised, however, that there was a need for sustained mentorship, amounting to holding people's hands, if the process of empowerment was to succeed.
Source: BuaNews
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