Eastern Cape holds local content summit

24 Aug 2010

Late last week the Eastern Cape Province, in collaboration with the Department of Communication (DoC), hosted the Eastern Cape Local and Digital Content Summit to assist the province in adapting the local content strategy to the provincial needs of the communities. The DoC supports the initiative that the province has taken in setting up the Eastern Cape Community Television station (ECCTV).

The summit, which was addressed by the deputy minister Dina Pule, hopes to encourage the locals to take part in content development, so as to create content that is relevant to their needs and daily lives. This will have a positive impact, on not only their lives but also the local economy, which will benefit the people of the province through job creation, skills development and increased tourism.

This follows the national Local and Digital Content Summit hosted by the DoC in May this year. It is imperative for the country to start moving towards the conversion from analogue to digital content not only for better quality, but also to preserve the current local content that can be accessed for years to come. This means that we start bridging the digital divide by creating quality, locally produced content with better sound and picture.

"We are pleased to have started the development of the Local Content Strategy as this has been under discussion for a long time. The strategy will assist in identifying the niche economic opportunities in the Eastern Cape and that the development of the ICT infrastructure and access particularly in the rural areas is underway," says communications minister Gen (Ret) Siphiwe Nyanda.

"We are confident that the province will get involved in partnerships with the private sector, industry leaders, local content developers, universities and Amakhosi to assist in the advancement of the strategy."

The summit was held on Friday, 20 August 2010.