Finance minister Trevor Manuel highlighted the importance of the ICT industry at the opening of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) 2003 conference in Johannesburg.
The conference adopted the theme "Information Technology for Customs in Africa - Catalyst for development?"
Manuel said in his address at the opening of the conference that IT was one of the main drivers of globalisation. With this in mind, the New Partnership for Africa`s Development (Nepad) had identified the ICT sector as being key to enabling Africa`s economic recovery and its entry into the world economy.
"The challenge for African customs administrations is to develop measures to support the Nepad objectives and specifically through the use of ICT. The WCO conference and exhibition is a landmark as it enables customs administrations from Africa and other developing countries to share information and to develop strategies to optimise the use of ICT in their administrations," Manuel said.
"As Africans we must take these challenges very, very seriously. Trade facilitation is going to be an important leg of development going forward. We must understand that trade facilitation is dependent almost exclusively on the sound and efficient customs systems between countries," Manuel pointed out.
"We must do so in an environment where we all take responsibility for ensuring that as we proceed in a world premised primarily on free trade that customs as a generator of revenue for government is going to be less and less important, that customs as a facilitator of trade will become increasingly more important.
"ICT is not a standalone. It is a measure to ensure that we can facilitate trade better," Manuel said. "We have the most promising opportunities because member states on the African continent are as passionate as they are about Nepad. And because ICT is an important part of Nepad and because Nepad is focused on economic development, if we pull all these together, we have everything to gain."
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