Zimbabwe moving its ICT to the next level - Chamisa

Zimbabwe's minister of Information, Communication and Technologies Nelson Chamisa said Zimbabwe is pushing forward with plans to move its information and communication technology (ICT) sector to "the next level" by 2015.

Speaking at a trade and investment conference on Friday, Chamisa encouraged private-public participation to further construct and upgrade telecommunications facilities in this relatively new sector in Zimabawe.

The country's medium-term plan, released last year, highlighted the increasing need to develop Zimbabwe's ICT sector, as it was a key infrastructural enabler for economic growth.

"ICT will act as a catalyst for national socioeconomic growth, propelling the country into an knowledge society with ubiquitous connectivity by 2015," he said.

The government aimed to transform the sector through the introduction of a new ICT bill by the end of 2012. The bill aimed to unlock the sector, promote investment and increase competition. It focused on mitigating some of the challenges the sector faced, including the lack of an updated regulatory framework and the lack of coordination among service providers. It would also deal with cyber security and digital signatures, besides others.

Chamisa stated that his Ministry also hoped to complete a policy framework to further promote infrastructure sharing among industry players, including the sharing of existing and proposed fibre links; mobile phone base stations, to facilitate faster expansion of networks; and costs in upgrading to new technologies.

Despite its limited financial position, Zimbabwe reported good progress with its network expansion and capacity building programme, with many aspects of the project nearing completion. To date, the State had committed $6.3-billion to the programme.

The programme included the establishment of high-bandwidth national and international gateways by connecting to undersea cables through the installation of fibre-optic transmission from Harare through Mutare to Mozambique and from Harare through Beitbridge to South Africa, both of which were still under way and dependent on more funding, and a terrestrial link to Botswana.

The Ministry was also in the process of establishing an e-Goverment programme to facilitate connectivity of all government Ministries and agencies and promote access by the public and potential investors to government services.