Africa Information Technology Exhibition Conferences (Aitec) is hosting a conference in Canada in May 2006 that aims to encourage African ICT decision-makers to form partnerships with Canadian counterparts.
"The United Nation Economic Commission for Africa voted Canada number one in governance and technology for four consecutive years. Africa needs to partner with countries such as Canada for skills transferral," says Aitec Canada partner Brodie Osome.
"The major challenge that we face with this project is the myth spread by the mass media, which depicts Africa as a continent for problems. Also, Canadians still see Africa as a country and not a continent and that limits the scope of business," he explains.
"Africa is a continent of hope and it has a market of roughly one billion people. It is the next emerging market and we`re trying to make Canadians aware of this," he notes.
There are 25 African countries out of 53 that are represented in Canada by diplomats, he explains. This conference is a way to move away from the cultural focus that stigmatises Africa - it is an initiative to focus more on trade and enhancing Africa`s economy, he says.
Osome advises that African ICT decision-makers start drafting potential partners prior to the event. "It would help save time and a lot of frustrations if ICT decision-makers would do a 'pre-qualifying testing` of all the prospective partners they would be interested in before the conference.
"We urge all decision-makers to attend this for potential business prospects. But this doesn`t mean that we are discouraging non-decision-makers," he concludes.
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