Africa welcomes Indian network offer

A high-level delegation of African development organisations has accepted an Indian government proposal for the deployment of a major satellite and fibre project across the continent.~ ~ Meeting in Addis Ababa this week, officials from organisations including the African Union, the African Telecommunications Union and the African Development Bank said that they welcomed the proposal, which includes the connection of hospitals and universities and the delivery of VoIP for government agencies.~ ~ They said that under-privileged communities in Africa could benefit from India`s ICT experience, pointing specifically to the 90 per cent reduction in basic telephony costs in India over the last ten years.~ ~ The proposed US$50 million Indo-African E-NET system involves a collaboration between Indian government agencies and enterprises to develop network infrastructure in Africa.

The initial three-year project will focus mainly on education and health, as well as ICT skills, but could be expanded in the future to support agricultural enterprises. ~ ~ A statement said, "Through these interventions, the Indian government and the African Union hope to enable African countries especially the poorer ones, to accelerate their various targets for the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of NEPAD and the action plan for the World Summit on the Information Society." ~ ~ The Indo-African E-NET project has won praise from the Commonwealth Telecommunications Union, which says that India`s offer represents the new collaborative approach needed to help bridge the digital divide.~ ~ CTO chief executive Ekow Spio-Garbrah said, "India`s offer and Africa`s prompt favourable response are an encouraging sign of how ICTs could have an equally dramatic impact on Africa`s developmental prospects in the coming decade. We are proud that a non-African Commonwealth country can take such a bold initiative to assist Africa. We hope other countries will emulate India`s example." ~