KEY INFORMATION and Communication Technology (ICT) players will converge in Mauritius for the 7th SADC ICT in Government Summit and Networking Forum on 29, 30 and 31 May 2008. The conference organized annually by Forge Ahead, a specialist ICT Research and Consulting, will bring together top public and private sector players to robustly discuss how the ICT sector can help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations, which were set in 2000.

There will be important discussions around the challenges facing governments going forward through to 2015.

Says Jane Mosebi, Forge Ahead Managing Director: “ICT forms an integral part in realizing the MDG on the future of sustainable human development and poverty eradication.”

“In this information age, the lack of capacity remains the greatest single challenge to the networked economy and society especially in this digital era.

“We believe that while the means to meet this challenge are actually close at hand, the so-called “digital divide” has shifted extremely in recent years to the detriment of the developing countries with serious and potentially irreversible consequences for the achievement of the MDGs,” adds Mosebi.

Mosebi says this year’s conference aims to tackle issues that are core to these challenges and the huge backlog of social needs of developing countries including those of rural or isolated communities.

She says that these goals can unfortunately not be realized without promoting sustainable development by applying ICT for clean technologies, economizing on the use of energy and materials in production, remote sensing for resource mapping.

Forge Ahead believes that in order to unleash the full potential of ICTs both old and new as an enabler of economic and social development throughout the developing world, a global and prioritised policy and practice breakthrough is urgently required.

Furthermore, the relevance and importance of such a breakthrough is increasingly being viewed within government, business, civil society and international organizations through the lens of MDGs.

Ashraf Patel, Telecoms Analyst at Forge Ahead, says with the strategic, intensive, widespread and innovative use of ICTs in development policies and programmes, the ambitious agenda of the MDGs becomes much more possible to realize.

“Without this laser-like focus and vision, scaleable implementation of the MDGs in many instances may well be impossible,” he concludes. The eclectic line-up of speakers includes ministers from various SADC countries, top government officials as well as top role players in the ICT sector, with the keynote address to be delivered by the Honourable Minister Ivy Casaburri from the South African Department of Communications.

Other invited speakers include Advocate Ouma Rasethaba, Telkom; Dr Henry Chasia, Executive Deputy Chairperson, NEPAD eAfrica Commission and Honourable Minister Dora Siliya, Transport and Communications, Zambia.

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