P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Microsoft Government Leaders Forum

10 JULY 2006

Programme Director, and Microsoft Chairman for Africa,
Dr Cheick Diarra,
Honourable Presidents;
Vice Presidents,
Honourable dignitaries from the African continent,
Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates,
Managing Director of Microsoft SA, Pfungwa Serima,
Director Legal and Corporate Affairs Microsoft SA,
Chose Choeu
Members of the press,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to stand before you today at this Government Leaders Forum and
to be part of such a high-level discussion that aims to encourage open
discussion and the exchange of ideas on how we can collectively drive Africa's
competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Speaking at the opening of parliament earlier last year the President of the
Republic of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said "Our country, as a united
nation, has never in its entire history enjoyed such a confluence of
encouraging possibilities... confident that its implementation will help to
place us on the high road towards ensuring that we become a winning nation, and
that we play our role towards the renewal of Africa and the creation of a
better world." President Thabo Mbeki, 11 February 2005.

What the President said then, we can confidently and proudly say about the
African continent today. Africa is experiencing some positive developments both
politically and economically.

We live in thrilling times, where, for three years in a row now, African
economies have grown on an average of 5% a year and this is forecast to
increase to 5,8% this year, the fastest in three decades. This gives us hope
for the future of the continent.

The external debt situation of Africa also improved in 2005 and is expected
to improve further in 2006 owing to higher export earnings, continued debt
relief and more active debt management.

We are grateful to the favourable conditions in minerals and in agriculture
and higher prices and volumes for these main exports of the region. Steady
growth in the latter half of the 1990s and the relatively high rates of growth
recorded over the last five years confirm the continued recovery of African
economies. Growth in 2005 was underpinned by the same factors that drove growth
in 2004.

It must be stated emphatically that despite the relatively positive
aggregate economic performance, Africa should and must ideally grow at a much
higher rate, African economies are faced with fundamental challenges that
require attention if better and faster growth is to be achieved in the future,
and we are to sustain the confluence of possibilities, that we spoke about.

The aggregate rate of growth has remained below 7%, which the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World Bank estimate as the minimum average
rate at which sub-Saharan African countries need to grow in order to achieve
the first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty on the continent by
2015.

While there is progress and reason to hope, we are also aware of some of the
issues that affect African growth relative to global growth. We fully
appreciate that African growth is more vulnerable than other emerging markets
purely because it is fuelled by commodity cycles.

In our initiative the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), we
seek to close this gap. We have identified ICT as an important enabler of
growth and development so we need the infrastructure and human capital to roll
out ICT to achieve higher shared growth.

Amongst some of the challenges that militate against growth in Africa, are
issues of poor and inadequate infrastructure, inadequate capital - low tax
bases, low Foreign Direct Investments and low savings - Scarcity of critical
skills is another factor where we lack capacity to generate economic
activities, the flight of skills to developed countries also exacerbates this
situation.

In addition, pandemics such as HIV/AIDS and malaria continue to exert
tremendous pressure on Africa's productive resources, which might impose
additional constraints on the long-term growth prospects of some of the more
seriously affected countries.

In partnership, we can achieve a great deal more. A partnership between
various entities in Africa and South Africa and Microsoft can tackle the
challenges faced. I therefore, want to highlight to you a few points on which
cooperation is possible.

Youth Development
Through ICT we have to fast track the development of our Youth whom we refer to
as e-cadres who will revolutionarise their lives and those of their communities
through ICT. As Government in SA, we are also at the brink of launching the
National Youth Service through which young South Africans will be engaged in a
meaningful and constructive manner. Our Umsobomvu Youth Fund will thus help to
catapult thousands of young people into a brighter future that they deserve; in
that programme they intend to partner with companies such as Microsoft. Further
Education and Training Colleges (FETs) and Universities Our universities and
FET colleges are important for training our young people in large numbers as
needed in the economy. In all our African countries we need a large pool of
educators and we urgently need it. We see a more Private Sector building
capacity and enhancing content in these training facilities.

Graduate placement
Congratulations go to Microsoft for your exemplary and cooperative spirit you
have shown for placing a great number of University graduates in your company,
especially the unemployed graduates. We are indeed highly appreciative of this
cooperation and we it growing even more for most of our countries while
Microsoft has training academies. I would urge that consideration is given to
younger people who have just completed their Grade 12, or their last year of
high school education as long as they have Maths so that Microsoft academics
can reach out even more, and to be realistic about the production of
desperately needed intermediary and higher ICT skills. It is urgent that we
take into cognisance that the intermediary skills mostly needed in South Africa
are provided mainly by private computer colleges. In the case of SA the demand
is higher and urgent as we have opted to prioritise the Business Processing
Outsourcing BPO industry. To train for that industry we need private sector,
tertiary institutions our Information Sector Education and Training Authority
(I-SETA). All of them need added capacity.

We are also looking forward to a greater cooperation between the South
African Government and Microsoft in the delivery of the 2010 Soccer World Cup
Competition. We are aware that a lot of equipment and programmes will be needed
for 2010 that has an ICT base therefore strengthening the cooperation to which
I have just alluded.

Our second decade of freedom will be the decade in which we radically reduce
inequality, and greatly reduce poverty. We know we can do it only if we work
together around an initiative, which has the support of our nations. Without
education and outreach to our poor communities, that cannot be done. It is for
that reason that we also strongly support the rollout of ICT teacher education
for our schools in line with Nepad and the Microsoft initiative on software in
local languages that will revolutionalise adult literacy and innovation by
entrepreneurs who will be involved in software development.

The power of Information Technology is its capacity to connect people - to
each other, to their wider communities and to new opportunities and in our case
to be directed to community development and poverty alleviation and delivery of
services.

Life-long learning is essential because technology is pervasive, dynamic and
ever-changing. Our citizens must have the technical skills, confidence, and
flexibility they need to adapt over the course of their lifetimes. Africa is
the biggest growth story this century will see and for the ICT the demand and
need is massive.

Digital inclusion is not only achieved by giving people access to
information - putting computers in schools or providing Internet access - but
by teaching people how to use technology and information to shape their own
futures.

The issue of infrastructure development African countries are embarking on,
and the issue of developing our telecommunications technologies is also central
for most African countries in order to leapfrog the technology gap. Our
countries in the East and Southern Africa as we speak are seized with working
together to provide infrastructure that will enhance greater penetration of the
new technologies and lower the cost for our people.

The ICT infrastructure should surely take a lead in ensuring that Africa's
population receives access to the internet so that they can be part of the
Information and global society. ICT has also emerged as a growing industry in
Africa and has become the second most attractive for Foreign Direct Investment
after energy and oil.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
10 July 2006
Source: SAPA