Make broadband access a global priority – Kagame

The upcoming UN Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) offers an ideal opportunity to rally world leaders to make broadband access a top priority on the global development agenda, a meeting of the global Broadband Commission was told yesterday.Speaking at the opening of the Fifth Meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in the Macedonian resort town of Ohrid, yesterday, President Paul Kagame said there was need to “bring on board all global players” to ensure that broadband technology opportunities are not missed due to other competing priorities.“(Rio+20) presents an opportunity for the commission to make this case and mobilise the world’s leaders to make broadband more widely accessible and affordable,” Kagame, who co-chairs the Commission, along with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu said.The Summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 20-22, 2012.The President also called for new forms of collaboration to help deploy “the necessary technology infrastructure to enable our countries address fundamental challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture, energy and our continuously degraded environment.”“We need to build strong partnerships with the industry to ensure that needed technologies are available to the millions of unconnected people.Technologies like mobile broadband, present an opportunity to provide affordable access to serve these people,” he added.Kagame expressed optimism that the Broadband Commission, which was established in May 2010 as a response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s call to step up UN efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), can help usher in “a new era of mobile broadband data services that can transform our economies and fundamentally change lives of our people.”“With all continents now interconnected through undersea cables, major connectivity hurdles have been removed and the developing nations are now in a better position to benefit more from ICT...Only through accessible and affordable technologies, can we see all the people of the world contributing effectively to a more prosperous world that we all aspire for.”In his remarks, co-chair Carlos Slim, said yesterday’s meeting was an opportunity to “work on new advocacy statements from the commission to some of the key global high-level events to be held in the next few months, in particular the G20 meeting and the Rio+20 Summit.”He noted that the Commission needed to do more in emphasising the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the digital economy and to promote the development of local content and applications. “Small and medium enterprises play a key role globally as drivers of economic growth and job creation. Broadband can help these enterprises to improve their productivity, offer value-added services and access new markets.”The philanthropist called for promotion of local content and applications, saying it would result in the emergence of young, innovative and competitive workforce that would strengthen human digital capital, bring technology closer to people and help generate jobs, growth, productivity and, ultimately, long-term economic competitiveness.At the meeting, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced eight new commissioners on the Broadband Commission, who join a “select group of over 50 global leaders who are putting broadband at the very centre of their organisational vision.”Kagame said the new commissioners, “bring with them a wealth of experience, expertise, knowledge, and commitment that should propel the commission’s work even further.”Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General and Co-Vice Chair of the Commission, said: “The Broadband Commission is delighted to welcome these global leaders, who will use their talents and their considerable expertise to add fresh impetus to our mission to spread the word about the importance of broadband.”At its fourth meeting, held in Geneva last October, Commissioners agreed on a set of four ‘ambitious but achievable’ targets that countries around the world should strive to meet in order to ensure their populations fully participate in tomorrow’s emerging knowledge societies.They also launched a ‘Broadband Challenge’ that recognizes communication as ‘a human need and a right’, and called on governments and businesses to work together to develop the innovative policy frameworks, business models and financing arrangements needed to facilitate growth in access to broadband worldwide.Commission members comprise a high-powered international community, including prominent CEOs, top-level policy-makers and government representatives, heads of international agencies, and senior figures from academia and organisations with a development mandate.

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Make broadband access a global priority – Kagame