Welcome Remarks by

His Excellency Paul KAGAME,

 President of the Republic of Rwanda

At Connect Africa Summit

 

29 October 2007

Serena Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda

 

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our Capital City, Kigali and to this important “Connect Africa Summit”. The impressive gathering of leaders from government, the corporate world, and development institutions at this Summit leaves no doubt that we will achieve our principal objectives, namely to recommit to the vision of a vibrant ICT sector on our Continent, and to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources for achieving it. 

We are particularly honoured to have with us, Your Excellencies, African heads of state and government, to guide us in this vital endeavour. We thank you for availing valuable time to lead and to contribute your thoughts to the critical issue of promoting ICT in Africa.

We are pleased to have at this Summit Dr Graig Barrett, Chairman of Intel and Chairman of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.

Through you, I welcome your colleagues from the global business community who have joined us at this important meeting.  I am certain that the confidence you are expressing in Africa will turn into tangible results; we in Africa are determined to create the right business environment for attracting a larger share of foreign direct investment.

Many institutions and individuals have made the “Connect Africa” Summit possible.
In this respect, we greatly appreciate the efforts of Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union.

We congratulate you for your leadership in the ICT field as well as for a job well done in organising this Summit.

Together with your colleagues at the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, the African Union, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the African Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Economic Commission, and from Rwandan and African governments, you worked tirelessly to make this Summit a reality.

We most sincerely thank the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for his support to this effort by sending to this Summit the UN Undersecretary for Economic and Social Affairs, Ambassador Sha Zukang.

Excellency Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal, you have been a consistent advocate for a strong ICT sector on our continent, and have provided invaluable leadership in striving to realise this vision.

While our purpose at this Summit is to discuss ways to build a dynamic ICT sector, and to connect our continent to the global information superhighway, it is critical that we place this effort into a broader perspective.

We in Africa are more than ever before, challenged to foster growth and development using our national and continental resources. This means that investment and trade – as opposed to aid and charity – must drive the transformation of our economies.

In order to realise this much-needed economic revolution, we have to forge productive relationships between government and business.

Our recognition of such development imperatives notwithstanding, Africa remains the world’s least connected continent – which means that we are effectively foregoing enormous socioeconomic benefits that accrue from ICT, a proven and powerful engine for growth and development.

We have already witnessed the power of the ICT via the mobile phone revolution on this continent. In ten short years, what was once an object of luxury and privilege, the mobile phone has become a basic necessity in urban and rural Africa. 

Formal and informal sector operators, as well as consumers throughout the continent use their mobile phones to access a range of services. Farmers and traders in rural Africa receive market information through this medium.

Health data is easily transmitted from remote rural corners for timely interventions by centrally-located authorities, thus drastically improving public health delivery.

In the field of education, the Internet has not only connected some rural schools – it has also provided reading materials and curriculum content for teachers as well as learners.

Such positive changes associated with mobile phone technologies are not restricted to national borders. For example, new and cheaper alternatives to roaming are now easing trans-border business transactions and personal communication in our region.

In this way, East Africa-based companies are taking advantage of the enlarged East African Community to the benefit of regional consumers.

Similar cross-boundary developments are to be found in other parts of Africa.

We are therefore living a contradiction. Beyond the powers of ICT associated with the mobile phone and data services, we have stalled when it comes to building the required communications infrastructure for more ambitious applications, product development and greater diffusion of these tools.

DISTINGUISHED LADIES AND GENTLEMEN;

Three things are critical if we are to move from this stalemate.

First, at the level of policy, we must recognize that governments alone cannot build and operate the infrastructure required.

The role of government is to ensure a fair, transparent, and above all, competitive marketplace for ICT infrastructure.

Not only do individual African governments have to increase our respective regulatory cohesion, we must also harmonise across the continent in order to become more attractive to domestic and foreign investment.

We cannot emphasize enough that investors create wealth, and that this Summit provides us an opportunity to form partnership with African and international business community for greater prosperity on our continent.

Second, we must invest in capacity building and in ICT-related training.
We all know that success in ICT requires highly trained engineers, programmers, and managers.

In many cases African institutions of higher education are not able to produce the required quality and quantity of skilled professionals.

A multi-faceted strategy aimed at creating this indispensable expertise, while strengthening the capabilities of national and regional training institutions is vital. In addition we need to improve Africa’s record of retaining our professionals, who we often lose to the outside world as soon as they enter the labour market.

Finally, we must urgently bring true high-speed broadband connectivity to Africa.
In my view, this is the heart of the matter if we are to make a breakthrough on our continent.
Today, this service is attainable by satellite, a very expensive method whose capacity is inherently limited.

This obstacle to Africa’s economic competitiveness can only be overcome by building cable connections undersea and overland directly to the backbone of the global information superhighway.

A number of projects aimed at this goal have been on the drawing board for much too long.
In effect our continent’s credibility is at risk.

We need urgent and greater continental collaboration to accelerate the completion of these vital projects.

Only then will African countries become intra-connected – and that is when our continent will become fully connected to the global market place.

Let me emphasize here that investment in ICT is not just about money, profit, prestige, or infrastructure for its own sake – it is about improving access and affordability for African people.
Ultimately, it is about empowering people to realize their ambitions and aspirations to improve their own lives.

With a modern ICT infrastructure, we can strengthen our major cities as hubs of dynamic services-led economic activity, attracting good quality and knowledge-based jobs.
This will keep our best and brightest in Africa, where they can build a more prosperous future for themselves and for our continent.

More importantly, rural Africa can become fully integrated into the productive economy – as opposed to its current status of a subsistence hinterland.

EXCELLENCIES

This meeting provides a vital opportunity to bring about greater cohesion in our continent’s ICT strategies, and to strengthen partnership between governments and business for the rapid realisation of tangible results.

I have no doubt that if we undertake our respective responsibilities we in Africa will develop and benefit from a vibrant ICT sector.

Not only will international ICT companies make more significant investment on our continent, Africa’s own will acquire the necessary sophistication to compete globally.

In the end, the winners will be the citizens of Africa who will gain doubly – from new and improved services and from the wealth generated.

With these few remarks, I bid you once again a very warm welcome to our country – and look forward to a fruitful Summit. 

I THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION