A group of New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) champions will next week hold a one-day conference to discuss infrastructure integration - including ICT - in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Nepad Business Foundation senior project manager John Rocha says within the partnership's framework, "infrastructure" denotes energy, transport (air, rail, road and sea), water and sanitation and ICT.
World Bank analyst Vivien Foster told an Infrastructure Consortium for Africa meeting, in Tokyo, Japan, in March that the continent needs to spend at least $3.9 billion on ICT a year. A SADC figure is not immediately available.
Foster puts the annual requirement for international backbone at $2.2 billion and the cost of universal access at $1.7 billion. This broke down to $800 million for voice and $900 million for broadband. Intraregional backbone, Foster says requires $400 million a year and intercontinental backbone $1.8 billion.
The conference, scheduled to be held on 8 August at the Sandton Sun Hotel, will be hosted by the Nepad Business Foundation, headed by seconded IBM executive Lynette Chen. Other hosts include the Departments of Foreign Affairs, as well as Trade and Industry, supported by the SADC Secretariat and the Nepad Secretariat.
The conference forms "part of a consultative process" and will explore mechanisms to promote investment in cross-border infrastructure and enhance trade opportunities.
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