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ITU symposium to continue facilitating ICT development

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2017
Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. [Photo source: ITU]
Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau. [Photo source: ITU]

The International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) telecoms and information society measurement global symposium will continue to be a platform for ICT data users and producers to meet and share knowledge and best practices.

This promise was made by Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, on the last day of the annual gathering hosted by the Tunisian government.

This week, the ITU held its 15th annual World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium, bringing together over 600 participants from 96 countries to debate new and emerging ICT issues to provide strategic guidance to the information society.

The symposium provided the opportunity for the ITU to launch the 2017 Measuring Information Society Report, which features the ICT Development Index (IDI). The IDI is a benchmark of the level of ICT development across 176 countries worldwide.

According to Sanou, this year's meeting highlighted the importance of collaboration across sectors and relevant metrics used to determine ICT development in different economies.

It also explored the role of emerging ICT technologies, such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence in the enablement of innovations to fundamentally transform business, government and society.

"Over the past three days, we reinforced the importance of good data and statistics of current and emerging technologies and their role in creating investment and economic opportunities."

Sanou reiterated the importance of the IDI. "This is an important index because it allows countries to carry out self-assessments and drive their progress on a year-to-year basis. In order to complement the IDI, we have for the first time this year produced volume two of the report which provides insight into the efforts made by each country."

The IDI 2017 demonstrated that every country has made progress towards the creation of the information society and highlighted the need for increased investment in the ICT sector, he stated.

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