/ 30 August 2000

AFRICA ‘MUST BUILD IT SECTOR’

GLOBALISATION has become a matter of priority for Africa, with the continent needing to build capacity in the information technology sector, says Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri. Speaking at the opening of the “Making IT work for Africa” summit at Sun City, Matsepe-Casaburri said in the past so-called industrial world, globalisation meant Africa’s isolation from global events. Now in the so-called information dispensation, globalisation meant marginalisation. “To most of the developed countries it may have meant progress, but to the under-developed world it has been a cruel plot against the poor,” she said. Africa needed to find a way to address the infrastructure rollout and capacity building of the IT sector. “The most important thing to realise is that Africa is e-absent right now,” Matsepe-Casaburri said. “We would like to see Africa’s e-services revolution take off soon and in a strong way.”