The Zim ICT Minister on AU theme: Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Prospects and Challenges for Development

The Computer Society of Zimbabwe organized a presentation by the Zimbabwe Minister of ICT, Nelson Chamisa yesterday evening. The presentation was on the just ended African Union 14th Ordinary Summit whose theme was “Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Prospects and Challenges for Development”

He touched on using Information and Communication Technologies as instruments for achieving peace and enhancing development and disaster response. Specifically, he talked about the following issues:

• The need for public-private partnerships as a way of developing technologies as well.
• An update on the national priority fibre cable project. Completion is expected before the end of June.
• An update on the Zimbabwe ICT bill. He says it’s been a struggle pushing it and hopes it’ll be passed into act by the end of this year.
• The government is working on a One PC Per Classroom project.
• An ICT achievers award will be awarded to companies and individuals to celebrate outstanding achievements in ICT.

More on what we think about these issues in the next few days. We’re preparing a MP3 download of the presentation by the minister and will have it available for download in a few hours.