GABORONE, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Information Society Technologies (IST) Africa Week conference, which started on Wednesday and will end on Friday, is being hosted in Gaborone, capital of Botswana.
Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, IST-Africa Week 2018 is the 13th in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.
Focused on Information Society and ICT Policy Dialogues, International Development, Research and Innovation Cooperation and Community Building, the conference bring together senior representatives of leading public, private, education and research organizations from 50 countries to discuss policy, share insight and identify collaboration opportunities.
IST-Africa Week is the flagship event of the IST-Africa initiative, co-funded under the European Framework Program since 2005.
At the officially opening the conference on Wednesday, President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi told researchers and scholars in the field of Information and Communication Technology that research should provide governments and the private sector with possibilities of improvement in efficiency, productivity, economic growth and the well-being of society.
"I am pleased to inform you that government of Botswana has launched the National Research, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and has set up a department dedicated to formulating research policies namely the Department of Research, Science and Technology. In addition, there is the Botswana Innovation Hub, the Botswana Institute for Technology, Research and Innovation, and the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, which are also national centers of research," he said.
He highlighted that Botswana was considering the establishment of Information Age Council, which would be responsible for advising government on the national direction of ICT.
Masisi noted that government would commence the establishment of the Public Key Infrastructure project whose main purpose would be to oversee and protect Botswana networks.
He said Botswana had embarked on the modernization of the government data network so as to enable provision of e-services such as e-health, e-commerce, e-education and e-agriculture, among others, which formed part of the transformational agenda of Botswana's Ministry of Communication and Transport.
