MS focuses on African competitiveness

The role of ICT in kick-starting Africa`s competitiveness was the main theme of keynote addresses at the start of Microsoft`s Government Leaders` Forum (GLF), in Cape Town, today.

Cheick Diarra, chairman of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the next two days of the conference will focus on accelerating Africa`s global competitiveness. "Given our collective passion for this topic, we will be talking specifically about how we do this," he said.

More than 200 delegates, from government and the private sector, are attending the conference. Among them are deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; president of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza; president of the United Republic of Tanzania, Jakay Kikwete; and other high-ranking government officials from sub-Saharan countries.

Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and former US president Bill Clinton will address the conference on Tuesday afternoon.

In her address, Mlambo-Ngcuka said ICT plays an important role in developing African countries through lessening conflict associated with its mineral wealth. "Many African countries have not benefited, for instance, from the rising oil price. Rather it has led to more conflict. ICT, however, can play an important role in developing human capital and so lessening conflict," she said.

Mlambo-Ngcuka also talked about the importance of public private partnerships in developing the ICT sector and the related importance of ensuring that educational institutions, such as schools and universities, are able to meet the needs of the private sector.

She also praised Microsoft`s initiative to start porting its operating systems and application programs to local languages so that more "African" software developers are able to use them.

"One`s competence should not be measured by the language of the 'colonialiser`," she said.