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SADC Want ICT Roles Recognized to Boost Economy
[September 18, 2014]

SADC Want ICT Roles Recognized to Boost Economy


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture, Kondwani Nankhumwa says Government is vigilant to utilize the Southern African Internet Forum (SAIGF) to set up e-governance laws to monitor progress on e-commerce.



He reiterated that the roles played by information communication technology (ICT) cannot be overemphasized as it would be difficult to execute integration and regional harmonization in the absence of ICT applications and systems.

Furthermore, Nankhumwa said despite the benefits offered by ICT Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region must guard against the abuse and misuse of resources, especially in this era of technology development where the misuse of ICT applications can lead to catastrophic effects especially to youthful generations.


Nankhumwa was speaking at the official launch of the 3rd Southern African Internet Governance Forum (SAIDF) on Wednesday, he assured the delegates and the entire SADC region that Malawi is committed to ensuring that people should realise the importance and benefits of enhanced cooperation in harnessing the powers of information and communication technologies for socio-economic development at all levels.

"The Government is committed to ensure that our people in the region recognize the importance and benefits of enhanced cooperation in harnessing the powers of ICT for socio-economic development at all levels.

This will be achieved through the facilitation of multi-stakeholder dialogue on the management and development of the internet," said Nankhumwa.

He added that Malawi will strive to implement all the resolutions that will be made at the forum for the benefit of its people and the SADC region as a whole.

SADC representative Dr. George Ah-Thew said Internet is one of the discoveries with the impact and it has radically transformed the ICT sector.

"Internet deeply impacts on our economy and society. Basically internet has become an integral part of our lives and it owes much of its success to how it has been governed.

While we discuss how to mould the future of the internet we should continue our efforts to ensure that the internet becomes more affordable to everyone in Africa," explained Thew.

Head of e-Africa Dr. Edmund Katiti said that the SAIDF is important to the SADC region because there is a progress on the implementation of policies which were made in similar meetings.

He said e-Africa will convince more governments to sign set up internet governance forums since it is multi-stakeholder agenda with the aim of governing internet as a building block for Africa's economy.

"We will try to convince more governments to establish internet forums in their countries so that they can develop easily," Dr. Katiti said.

Copyright Malawi News Agency. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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