TANZANIA will soon be home to an Information, Communication and
Technology (ICT) park comprising the first ever 'Smart Village' of its
kind in East Africa's geographic cluster, a national forum heard on
Thursday.
The Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mnyaa, said the park, to be established in Dar es Salaam, would be powered by an international high speed broadband access and global calibre end-to-end ICT infrstructure.
Prof Mnyaa said that a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement is being prepared to develop the village to host ICT small and medium enterprises (SMEs), established multinationals and IT Services.
He was speaking during a presentation of ground breaking research findings by Canada's International Centre for Development Research (IDRC) and the Commission (COSTECH).
The minister informed Legislators and private sector stakeholders who were present that the Park would also have Business Process Outsourcing call (BPO) call centres, online education, community public space and an ICT incubation centre for creativity and innovation.
The announcement follows a two-year research in Iringa region that showed access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has cut poverty levels in some areas by over 20 per cent in the last two years.
Chief Investigator Prof Ophelia Mascarena said the research has found out that gaining one unit of access to ICT was associated with a 2.4 per cent improvement in per capita expenditure between 2007 and 2010.
Over a 10 year period, gains resulting from ICT access for the most poor are twice that for the non-poor.
The Forum also heard from the findings that there was an overall decrease in the financial poverty of the matched sample across the two waves falling from 60.2 per cent in 2007 to 58.5 per cent in 2010 using the international poverty line of PPP$2.5 per capita.
Minister Mnyaa said the government would use the findings to the current process of reviewing the National ICT Policy of 2003,adding that it would help to show impact of current high government spending into the area,currently at 30bn/- per year -and expected to increase.
However,the minister said that despite evidence attesting to the important role that ICTs can play in facilitating rapid socio-economic development,roll out and exploitation of ICTs, the country remains with the least capability in ICTs and least served by telecommunication and other communications facilities.
"Poor ICT infrastructure,combined with weak and disparate policy and regulatory frameworks and limited human resources, has led to inadequate access to affordable telephones,broadband connectivity, rural connectivity, broadcasting services, computers and the internent in a number of rural areas," he said
He said using ICT is the linchpin of the government's plan to transform the country from a low income agricultural economy to a middle income knowledge based economy by 2025.
He said that to support the ICT policy,the government had adopted an e-government strategy with a dual focus to modernise government processes and make service delivery more efficient.
COSTECH Managing Director Dr Hassan Mshanda said such findings were imperative for evidence informed decisions at policy level and that it was important for ICT to reach the rural people. A book, by Dr Adam Mambi, 'ICT and Cyber Law' was also launched.
The Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mnyaa, said the park, to be established in Dar es Salaam, would be powered by an international high speed broadband access and global calibre end-to-end ICT infrstructure.
Prof Mnyaa said that a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement is being prepared to develop the village to host ICT small and medium enterprises (SMEs), established multinationals and IT Services.
He was speaking during a presentation of ground breaking research findings by Canada's International Centre for Development Research (IDRC) and the Commission (COSTECH).
The minister informed Legislators and private sector stakeholders who were present that the Park would also have Business Process Outsourcing call (BPO) call centres, online education, community public space and an ICT incubation centre for creativity and innovation.
The announcement follows a two-year research in Iringa region that showed access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has cut poverty levels in some areas by over 20 per cent in the last two years.
Chief Investigator Prof Ophelia Mascarena said the research has found out that gaining one unit of access to ICT was associated with a 2.4 per cent improvement in per capita expenditure between 2007 and 2010.
Over a 10 year period, gains resulting from ICT access for the most poor are twice that for the non-poor.
The Forum also heard from the findings that there was an overall decrease in the financial poverty of the matched sample across the two waves falling from 60.2 per cent in 2007 to 58.5 per cent in 2010 using the international poverty line of PPP$2.5 per capita.
Minister Mnyaa said the government would use the findings to the current process of reviewing the National ICT Policy of 2003,adding that it would help to show impact of current high government spending into the area,currently at 30bn/- per year -and expected to increase.
However,the minister said that despite evidence attesting to the important role that ICTs can play in facilitating rapid socio-economic development,roll out and exploitation of ICTs, the country remains with the least capability in ICTs and least served by telecommunication and other communications facilities.
"Poor ICT infrastructure,combined with weak and disparate policy and regulatory frameworks and limited human resources, has led to inadequate access to affordable telephones,broadband connectivity, rural connectivity, broadcasting services, computers and the internent in a number of rural areas," he said
He said using ICT is the linchpin of the government's plan to transform the country from a low income agricultural economy to a middle income knowledge based economy by 2025.
He said that to support the ICT policy,the government had adopted an e-government strategy with a dual focus to modernise government processes and make service delivery more efficient.
COSTECH Managing Director Dr Hassan Mshanda said such findings were imperative for evidence informed decisions at policy level and that it was important for ICT to reach the rural people. A book, by Dr Adam Mambi, 'ICT and Cyber Law' was also launched.
