Botswana eyes IST Africa conference to boost E-government

Botswana eyes IST Africa conference to boost E-government

GABORONE, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Botswana expects the promotion of E-government from the ongoing Information Technologies Africa 2011(IST) conference of 45 countries across Africa, Europe and theUnited States held in the capital Gaborone.

Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology Johnie Swartzsaid on Wednesday at the conference opening that since theconference center around creating contact and linkages, knowledgeexchange, and sharing results and best ICT research results fromAfrica and Europe, this will ensure combined research activity andcapacity.

"We also hope to open up opportunities for research cooperationthat is necessary to source funding especially under the EuropeanUnion Framework Program 7," he said.

Swartz added the areas of discussion and exhibition are usefulgiven Botswana's e-government path as the conference include suchtopics as e-health and health information, e-infrastructures,technology enhanced learning and ICT skills, digital libraries andIntelligent content. It will feature transformation of researchresults into local innovation.

He said Africa suffers from information poverty arising form thepervasive digital divide which in some cases is caused byrestrictive access to information and lack of institutionalinfrastructure to facilitate access to information.

E-Government refers to the use by Government agencies ofinformation technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internetand mobile computing) to transform relations with citizens,businesses, visitors and government. Through it the government ofBotswana hopes to enhance delivery services to citizens, improveinteractions with the business community, empower citizens throughaccess to information and more efficient Government administration.

IST Africa is a collaborative initiative between Ireland, andsome 14 African countries, which include Botswana, South Africa,Tanzania, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Egypt, Uganda,Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal and Rwanda. The European Commissionfunds it. This is the sixth conference, and it has drawn a total of500 ICT delegates, 300 from outside the country. About 160representations on research findings will be made by the many ICTresearchers from 45 countries that are present.