E-Tech Africa Expo a success

Conference and Expo.
It ran under the theme “Exploiting the potential of ICTs for sustainable socio-economic transformation”.
This novel initiative was the brainchild of a local technology company, Africa Exchange, in conjunction with the Ministry of Information Communication Technology.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai officially launched the expo.
In his address, the Prime Minister urged all ICT stakeholders to be actively involved and participate in the crafting of the ICT policy review. The policy review is now at an advanced stage with national consultation forums across all major towns in Zimbabwe being held.
“Policy issues are crucial if we are to make our ICT sector vibrant. It is therefore my appeal to you stakeholders to take advantage of the review process and contribute meaningfully to it. Once ICT companies receive the necessary support from Government especially in supportive policies they will create new jobs and consequently bring about an improvement in the economic well-being of our people. It is essential that Zimbabwe has an enabling environment for ICT development and use,” said PM Tsvangirai.
This was definitely a good call considering that ICTs are now the main economic drivers of most economies and Government has to recognise and create a good playing field as an enabler for an economic growth.
He also added that while taking into account the concerns expressed at the World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva, and agenda and commitments at the WSIS Tunis phase, the ICT policy should aim at harnessing the potential of ICT to promote the development goals of the millennium.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, ICT Minister Nelson Chamisa and the permanent secretary for ICT Engineer Sam Kundishora also attended the official opening event.
The e-Tech expo started at a slow pace with very little activity during the first two days. Monday and Tuesday was slotted for public exhibition but the turnout was rather disappointing especially for the exhibitors who had invested both their time and money to take part.
The disappointment was, however, shortlived as there was a marked improvement during the following days as both exhibitors and patrons warmed up to the activities of the day. Wednesday and Thursday saw quite a significant increase in the number of people turning up at the venue.
Wednesday was a full day dedicated for the business to business conference alongside the exhibition and overlapped into Thursday. The business to business meetings offered an unequalled opportunity for                 industry players to identify opportunities within their sectors.
It also became a platform to engage other stakeholders to find common ground and created opportunities for them to expand their business interests.
This created an enabling environment for private business engagements. The business seminar that ran concurrently with the expo covered the potential of ICTs for poverty alleviation, e-Government for national development, cloud computing, green computing, ICTs in tourism, health and education and IT governance and cyber security, which was presented by Professor Richard Young, and generated a lot of debate.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which was hardly visible during the previous ICT Africa Exhibition less than a fortnight ago, bounced back and almost took over the whole first floor exhibition ground.
According to some initial official report at least 87 exhibitors were supposed to turn up but nearly 31 were confirmed to be actually exhibiting.
Mauritius and South Africa among other international exhibitors were the most notable countries that graced the event.
Friday was career day, which saw 46 primary and secondary schools from within and around Harare including Chitungwiza visiting the expo. A career guidance session guided the students through some industrial fundamentals before they were also accorded an opportunity to tour the stands.
An official in the Ministry of ICT hinted that this will be an annual event commencing this year but details on whether it will still be a week-long event or not were unavailable.
In my view targeted expectations and achievements of such events should be put in the public domain to evaluate the relevance and progress attained by hosting such national events. Cultivating an ICT culture is of paramount importance and has always yielded positive economic growth for most nations, Zimbabwe included.
Bridging the technological divide is not only the Government’s responsibility but all relevant players should seize the moments and actively engage to enable us to progress as a nation.

l The writer is a computing specialist with TechnoMag. More on our Facebook page http://facebook.com/technomagzw. Website http://tech.co.zw. Twitter @technomagzw. Email: [email protected]/ [email protected]