Internet experts from several partner states of the East African Community (EAC) are meeting in Kampala as part of efforts aimed at finding a common internet code that will serve the region. The three-day meeting will discuss the implementation of a regional code top –level domain (RCCTLD) which will be used to serve at regional level other than country level. It’s running under the theme; ‘strengthening East Africa’s critical Internet resources. Thinking globally; Acting locally.’According to the EAC Deputy Secretary General (Planning and Infrastructure), Alloys Mutabingwa, the internet forum is timely especially that it will contribute to having modernization of trade in the region. “It’s long overdue. In this era of the Common Market, a lot of trading and transactions will be running on the internet,” Mutabingwa said by phone yesterday. He added that the EAC has already begun plans of building a strong internet infrastructure across the region, adding that the use of internet in trade and commerce will also come with reduced costs in transactions. The meeting is attracting over 100 participants drawn from the regional Internet Governance Forums (IGF) and various stakeholders in Information Technology. Geoffrey Kayonga, the Director of Kigali’s Sanvei Institute of Technology was upbeat that the forum will create strategic plans of how the regional RCCTLD can be achieved. “We are trying to see how best we can most probably create a taskforce that is going to ensure that we obtain the regional code called ‘.eac’,” he said.“For example www.x. rw or .ug will be adjusted to www.x.eac.” He added that this will lead to better definition of products from the East African region and that this will elevate the business to another level. “Rwanda will benefit a lot from this because Rwandans are able to define themselves as regional bloc that has more than a hundred and twenty million people that has multiple resources,” he said in an interview. This comes after a new global report on internet connectivity put Rwanda among the top three African countries with the fastest internet broadband connectivity and downloading speeds, ranking the country ahead of more developed African economies. Ends
