ICTs to lead in post Covid-19 era

Business Writer/NewZiana

Government intends to leverage on the growing use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to navigate the post Covid-19 era, President Emerson Mnangagwa said on Wednesday.

Mnangagwa said this while officially opening the National Data Communication Centre.

“In the present development epoch, technology plays a significant role where connectivity is viewed as the lifeblood of all business transactions and human interactions. Strategic facilities such as the National Data Centre ensure that Zimbabwe is not left behind. These are  further in line with our quest to build a knowledge based society riding

on today’s digital world,” he said.

“To this end, we envisage ICTs to become the backbone underpinning our  national development competitiveness and adaptation to the post Covid-19 world. In this context, my government will therefore continue to upscale the implementation of ICT projects to accelerate the modernisation, industrialisation and growth of our economy.”

Mnangagwa said the development of ICTs was of strategic importance.

“This is indeed another great leap forward in the modernisation of our  public sector and economy in general. The National Data Centre is of  strategic national importance and its reach and impact will go a long  way towards the attainment of an upper middle income economy by 2030 and  most immediately in the realisation of the goals we set out under the

National Development Strategy 1,” he said.

“Infrastructure such as the National Data Centre and the Zimbabwe High Performance Computing Centre which was established at the University of Zimbabwe will go a long way towards capacitating our institutions with regards to the adaptation of all sectors of our economy in line with expectations of the fourth industrial revolution.”

Mnangagwa thanked the Chinese government for assisting in the setting up of the National Data Centre.

“Their technical expertise and knowledge around e-governance and deployment of new technologies to improve the overall quality of service delivery across the economy has been invaluable,” he said.