South Africa has taken great strides in implementing resolutions made at the previous World Telecommunications Development Conference (WTDC) held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2002, says communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
Matsepe-Casaburri was speaking in Nigeria, at the three-day Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting for the scheduled WTDC in Doha, Qatar, in March 2006.
In its Resolution 31, the WTDC 02 considered that the success of future conferences would depend on greater efficiency of regional coordination.
In response to this need, a series of preparatory meetings was organised in each of the five International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regions. One of them was the Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting hosted by Nigeria. Some 300 participants, some of whom are ministers of communications from various countries in the continent, took part in the event.
The WTDC 02 mandated the ITU, through its Declaration and Plan of Action, to implement six programmes focusing on regulatory reform, new technologies, e-strategies and applications, economics and finance, human capacity building and special assistance to the least developed countries to transform the digital divide to digital opportunities.
In addressing the issues of economy, finance and connectivity in SA, multi-purpose community centres were built in underdeveloped areas, Matsepe-Casaburri said.
These centres serve as a vehicle for the implementation of communication and information programmes, with at least at least six government departments offering services to people who live close by.
Benefits for the communities include added skills to use information and communications technologies such as the Internet in local development programmes.
A tele-radiology project was also undertaken as a step to address the issues of e-strategies and e-services/applications, Matsepe-Casaburri said.
"This has the effect of linking five rural hospitals in one province, the Eastern Cape, with a bigger hospital in Johannesburg."
The benefit is that those patients who initially had to wait for as long as two weeks for diagnosis of their X-rays can now receive it within minutes.
Matsepe-Casaburri added that there are various projects under way to make connectivity within government at both local and national level a reality. These projects have culminated in 219 out of 284 municipalities nationwide being connected.
She urged African countries to share their experiences, as this "will allow us to become active and influential players in the global agenda of creating a vibrant information society".
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