Distinguished guests Industry leaders Ladies and gentlemen allow me, with all humility program director, to dedicate this address to Tata Mandela whom we all know that without his role and contribution to the struggle of our country we would not be where we are today.
Fellow participants, as a signatory to the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), South Africa has an obligation to facilitate the development of an inclusive Information Society. The creation of an enabling environment is key to the country fulfilling the commitments made at WSIS. The department's vision is that of "Making South Africa a global leader in the development and use of information and communication technologies for socio-economic development".
In this regard, we are facilitating the implementation of various flagship projects and programmes nationally. Program Director! In the second decade of the 21st century, we are all very much aware of the power and importance of ICTs in every aspect of our lives and ICTs increasingly play a vital role in all societies, in all countries. ICTs are also a huge enabler for women in all communities and especially in the developing world. Even a simple mobile phone that enables women to stay in touch with family and friends; can provide women with access to all kinds of valuable information, such as healthcare and reproductive information; and therefore can be a valuable tool for marketing skills and selling products and services.
With ICTs we can deliver basic education in areas such as literacy, entrepreneurship and e-agriculture in ways never before imagined – and given that women do most of the world’s work, this offers enormous potential for improving the lives not just of women but of all the world’s people. In a country where there is a large and growing skills shortage in the ICT sector, we need to get more girls involved in science, technology, engineering and maths – the STEM subjects – and we need to get more girls taking an interest in ICT careers.
I am therefore delighted to be able to announce that in May as the department we launched our integrated eSkills Institute in order to position South Africa well to harness existing resources and develop new approaches to the coordination of appropriate capacity development, using its multi-stakeholder platform to contribute to the massification of e-skills delivery at all levels. Our country needs real investment that will have a positive impact in the lives of our ordinary people. We believe that through technology, we can contribute to rural development, ensuring that we address the challenges of safety and promote justice in our country.
Through ICTs we can contribute to improving the quality of education and learning. Today I am talking to the ICT practitioners whom I know that they share this vision with the government. Let us all work with the industry towards ensuring that our people are ICT skilled and are ready for the modern knowledge economy we are living under. Our ICT market is converging rapidly into a single yet inter-dependent ecosystem driven by the increasing demand for data services. Cloud computing is making our storage of data even more easier, thanks to the technology innovations that never stop evolution to help find new solutions.
Basadi, we have to embrace these innovations in order to be on par with the rest of the world. Program Director! My department is working tirelessly to ensure that no area in South Africa is without broadband infrastructure. We know that this sector can create more jobs in the areas of broadband infrastructure and services, community sectors such as Radio and TV content development and internet services, as well as in electronics manufacturing and packaging. South Africa has an opportunity to grow the business processing services sector which also has the potential to add to job creation. Having said that, the question of affordability comes into play. We must work together to ensure that internet services are affordable to all our people.
As we work to enrol the young and rural people into the internet world, we must do so consciously giving them such services at affordable rates. The high levels of unemployment in South Africa prompted government to introduce targeted measures aimed at facilitating job creation in the economy. The New Growth Path which our government adopted in 2010 identifies key levers and strategies to accelerate employment creation. This requires every South African business and individual to think differently on how to contribute to the call for jobs campaign through creation of opportunities for the unemployed, particularly young people. I must confess program director that I have particular bias towards young people.
In order to contribute towards achieving the target above, the ICT sector in South Africa is expected to create new opportunities within the sector for the benefit of the unemployed as well as for retention of existing jobs. Our sector has been given a target of 100 000 jobs to be created by 2015. We are making steady progress in this respect. Distinguished guests! Our department has strong partnership with the private sector. This program has yielded excellent results. I am sure you have seen us connecting a number of schools country wide. We also have also partnered with the Department of Correctional Services in ensuring that the youth in prison are trained on ICT.
As part of ensuring that rural women too have access to ICTs we have taken a decision to connect all Kingdoms as to give access to those around them, community ICT centres are being established throughout so as to bridge the digital divide amongst our communities. This we do in order to strengthen and deepen the knowledge amongst users as to ensure increased innovation. This roadmap would address the challenges and barriers to engaging more people as well as those that prevent women from fully-engaging in ICT careers and advancing to the highest levels.
We are looking forward to working with a wide range of stakeholders as we undertake this journey Fellow brothers and sisters as patriots we have therefore descended in this big city today, not to revel in just another annual pastime, but we are here because we don't take our freedom and democracy for granted, lest we forget we come from. Be the best of what Tata Mandela is but in your own way as we don’t want a replica of him. May I therefore steal this moment to say we have much to look forward to and I wish you a very constructive dialogue! To the nominees go and take your rightful place in this industry.
SA is YOU.
Thank you!
