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Date : 10/07/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Microsoft Government Leaders Forum


  Speech delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum - Africa, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre

Programme Director, and Microsoft Chairman for Africa,
Dr Cheick Diarra,
Honourable Presidents;
Vice Presidents,
Honourable dignitaries from the African continent,
Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates,
Managing Director of Microsoft SA, Pfungwa Serima,
Director Legal and Corporate Affairs Microsoft SA,
Chose Choeu
Members of the press,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured to stand before you today at this Government Leaders Forum and to be part of such a high-level discussion that aims to encourage open discussion and the exchange of ideas on how we can collectively drive Africa's competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Speaking at the opening of parliament earlier last year the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said "Our country, as a united nation, has never in its entire history enjoyed such a confluence of encouraging possibilities... confident that its implementation will help to place us on the high road towards ensuring that we become a winning nation, and that we play our role towards the renewal of Africa and the creation of a better world." President Thabo Mbeki, 11 February 2005.

What the President said then, we can confidently and proudly say about the African continent today. Africa is experiencing some positive developments both politically and economically.

We live in thrilling times, where, for three years in a row now, African economies have grown on an average of 5% a year and this is forecast to increase to 5,8% this year, the fastest in three decades. This gives us hope for the future of the continent.

The external debt situation of Africa also improved in 2005 and is expected to improve further in 2006 owing to higher export earnings, continued debt relief and more active debt management.

We are grateful to the favourable conditions in minerals and in agriculture and higher prices and volumes for these main exports of the region. Steady growth in the latter half of the 1990s and the relatively high rates of growth recorded over the last five years confirm the continued recovery of African economies. Growth in 2005 was underpinned by the same factors that drove growth in 2004.

It must be stated emphatically that despite the relatively positive aggregate economic performance, Africa should and must ideally grow at a much higher rate, African economies are faced with fundamental challenges that require attention if better and faster growth is to be achieved in the future, and we are to sustain the confluence of possibilities, that we spoke about.

The aggregate rate of growth has remained below 7%, which the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World Bank estimate as the minimum average rate at which sub-Saharan African countries need to grow in order to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty on the continent by 2015.

While there is progress and reason to hope, we are also aware of some of the issues that affect African growth relative to global growth. We fully appreciate that African growth is more vulnerable than other emerging markets purely because it is fuelled by commodity cycles.

In our initiative the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), we seek to close this gap. We have identified ICT as an important enabler of growth and development so we need the infrastructure and human capital to roll out ICT to achieve higher shared growth.

Amongst some of the challenges that militate against growth in Africa, are issues of poor and inadequate infrastructure, inadequate capital - low tax bases, low Foreign Direct Investments and low savings - Scarcity of critical skills is another factor where we lack capacity to generate economic activities, the flight of skills to developed countries also exacerbates this situation.

In addition, pandemics such as HIV/AIDS and malaria continue to exert tremendous pressure on Africa's productive resources, which might impose additional constraints on the long-term growth prospects of some of the more seriously affected countries.

In partnership, we can achieve a great deal more. A partnership between various entities in Africa and South Africa and Microsoft can tackle the challenges faced. I therefore, want to highlight to you a few points on which cooperation is possible.

Youth Development
Through ICT we have to fast track the development of our Youth whom we refer to as e-cadres who will revolutionarise their lives and those of their communities through ICT. As Government in SA, we are also at the brink of launching the National Youth Service through which young South Africans will be engaged in a meaningful and constructive manner. Our Umsobomvu Youth Fund will thus help to catapult thousands of young people into a brighter future that they deserve; in that programme they intend to partner with companies such as Microsoft. Further Education and Training Colleges (FETs) and Universities Our universities and FET colleges are important for training our young people in large numbers as needed in the economy. In all our African countries we need a large pool of educators and we urgently need it. We see a more Private Sector building capacity and enhancing content in these training facilities. Graduate placement
Congratulations go to Microsoft for your exemplary and cooperative spirit you have shown for placing a great number of University graduates in your company, especially the unemployed graduates. We are indeed highly appreciative of this cooperation and we it growing even more for most of our countries while Microsoft has training academies. I would urge that consideration is given to younger people who have just completed their Grade 12, or their last year of high school education as long as they have Maths so that Microsoft academics can reach out even more, and to be realistic about the production of desperately needed intermediary and higher ICT skills. It is urgent that we take into cognisance that the intermediary skills mostly needed in South Africa are provided mainly by private computer colleges. In the case of SA the demand is higher and urgent as we have opted to prioritise the Business Processing Outsourcing BPO industry. To train for that industry we need private sector, tertiary institutions our Information Sector Education and Training Authority (I-SETA). All of them need added capacity.

We are also looking forward to a greater cooperation between the South African Government and Microsoft in the delivery of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Competition. We are aware that a lot of equipment and programmes will be needed for 2010 that has an ICT base therefore strengthening the cooperation to which I have just alluded.

Our second decade of freedom will be the decade in which we radically reduce inequality, and greatly reduce poverty. We know we can do it only if we work together around an initiative, which has the support of our nations. Without education and outreach to our poor communities, that cannot be done. It is for that reason that we also strongly support the rollout of ICT teacher education for our schools in line with Nepad and the Microsoft initiative on software in local languages that will revolutionalise adult literacy and innovation by entrepreneurs who will be involved in software development.

The power of Information Technology is its capacity to connect people - to each other, to their wider communities and to new opportunities and in our case to be directed to community development and poverty alleviation and delivery of services.

Life-long learning is essential because technology is pervasive, dynamic and ever-changing. Our citizens must have the technical skills, confidence, and flexibility they need to adapt over the course of their lifetimes. Africa is the biggest growth story this century will see and for the ICT the demand and need is massive. Digital inclusion is not only achieved by giving people access to information - putting computers in schools or providing Internet access - but by teaching people how to use technology and information to shape their own futures.

The issue of infrastructure development African countries are embarking on, and the issue of developing our telecommunications technologies is also central for most African countries in order to leapfrog the technology gap. Our countries in the East and Southern Africa as we speak are seized with working together to provide infrastructure that will enhance greater penetration of the new technologies and lower the cost for our people.

The ICT infrastructure should surely take a lead in ensuring that Africa's population receives access to the internet so that they can be part of the Information and global society. ICT has also emerged as a growing industry in Africa and has become the second most attractive for Foreign Direct Investment after energy and oil.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
10 July 2006

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