The Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, is today expected to address the ITU Telecom World 2013 conference underway in Bangkok, Thailand on the need to shift from smart solutions to smart city societies.

The conference is one of the major global ICT gatherings for both public and private sector, where top government officials and IT gurus meet to brainstorm ICT. The four-day conference kicked off on Tuesday.

According to the conference programme, Nsengimana will speak at a thematic session themed: ‘From smart solutions to smart city societies’. 

As part of the initiative, officials and partners, mainly internet service providers launched Smart Kigali, which provides free high-speed internet within the City. The initiative also saw some buses in Kigali getting free wi-fi in order to ease accessibility to broadband. 

A statement posted on the government website quotes the minister as saying that they would discuss with partners from all over the world on how to maximise the use of ICTs in transforming societies. 

"We are here to encourage investors to take part in our ICT4D transformational journey and  our country into a knowledge-based economy,” the minister said. 

The ICT global conference comes a few days after the Transform Africa 2013 summit held in Kigali recently. 

Meanwhile, at the conference, Rwanda is showcasing its investment opportunities in the ICT sector as well as government and private sector led-innovations 

Officials from the government indicated that one of the key projects to be showcased at the Rwanda Pavilion is the 4G LTE, a broadband network set to cover 95 per cent of the population in three years.