NEPAD workshop advocates ICT universal fund for Africa   Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The Information, Communication and Technologies (ICT) working group at the just-ended Dakar private sector conference on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has recommended the creation of an ICT universal fund for Africa, to help the continent narrow its digital gap with other regions. The ICT forum was one of five workshops held at the two-day conference, called to raise interest within the private sector in the financing of NEPAD schemes. Others were on Infrastructure, Agriculture (with focus on diversification and market access), Energy and Environment. Participants at the ICT workshop insisted that, given the indispensability of communication in the new world economic order, the sector deserves a prime place in NEPAD's priorities. They stressed the importance of ICT, arguing that it was as relevant to investment concerns as infrastructure, because effective and rapid collection of communication information was increasingly becoming a key determinant in business judgement. The urgency of NEPAD's ICT component was explained by Africa's comparative backwardness, despite substantial growth achieved in the last 10 years, thanks to reforms in regulations, ICT initiatives at national and sub-regional levels, coupled with partnerships. Whereas Europe, for instance, boasts some 324,000,000 telephone lines, Africa counts 21,000,000, even much less than in Asia. This translates into a density of some two telephones for every 100 people in Africa, as opposed to 40 for every 100 people in Europe. The workshop stressed the need for international assistance, noting that Africa needs some 10-15 billion US dollars to achieve the two-percent telephone density targeted by NEPAD. Business representatives at the workshop were told that their partnership was crucial to the realisation of this goal. It was further explained that besides private sector funding, additional financing could come from national budgets, the auctioning of public resources such as radio frequency spectrum and fiscal revenue from the ICT sector. Several projects within the component were highlighted for participants, as NEPAD officials vouched that the scheme would "facilitate Africa's entry into the information society and access for the entire population." They also pointed to its impact on other sectors, notably agriculture, industry, transportation, education and trade. Among the projects mentioned at the workshop was a 50-million dollar sub-regional information and communication infrastructure, with the objective of raising telephone density to four percent for fixed telephones and seven percent for mobile phones by 2005. Also featured at the workshop was a project to create a computer assembly industry with a production capacity of some 1,500 computers per day. The 6,000-million-francs CFA project due for completion in 2003, is also expected to create up to 30,000 jobs. A regional industrial unit for assembling computers and their accessories was also showcased. The philosophy behind the move, participants were told, was to lessen Africa's external dependence in terms of equipment and costs. The project earmarked for completion by 2005, is backed mainly by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). In all, some 14 projects were presented on the ICT component, at the Dakar private sector conference on NEPAD, which ended Tuesday.   Dakar - 17/04/2002