 |
| Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai |
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday said Government has adopted
Information Communication Technologies as an integral component to stimulate
economic development. PM Tsvangirai said this while officially opening the
inaugural e-Tech Africa Exhibition at the Harare International Conference
Centre. The five-day event began on Monday and will end today.
"As
Government, we have made ICTs the central hub for the Mid Term Plan, the
Millennium Development Goals and other programmes to transform the lives of our
people," he said. "ICT's are a critical tool to eradicate poverty and
enhance growth. Government has realised that we cannot grow all the sectors of
the economy at once and has identified ICTs to spearhead the development in
other sectors of the economy."
PM Tsvangirai
also took a swipe at the State Procurement Board for not promoting the local
ICT industry by not awarding tenders to local experts.
Speaking at the
same event Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara also called for the
development of the local ICT industry to wean the country from dependence on
importance.
"We
should not just be sales persons, let us design software, let us design
gadgets, let us be participants in the design of the knowledge and equipment
and not just be consumers," he said.
He commended
companies that exhibited for showcasing various products showing great innovation.
Information Communication Technology Minister Nelson
Chamisa said Government was working on having an information
based society by 2015.
"We are not
where we want to be in terms of speeds and costs but those are things that are
always under construction and we are working with the regulators to see how we
can address those. “We want our society to be knowledge-based by 2015 and for
everyone to be on the ICT platform. "We want a paperless economy by
2015," Minister Chamisa said.
The
e-Tech Exhibition was held under the theme, ICTs for Socio-Economic
Transformation and was attended by leading ICT's companies in Zimbabwe and
others from South Africa and Mauritius.
The Herald Zimbabwe