The half-day function hosted a number of speakers discussing Uganda's progress in the telecommunications sector, including the Acting Permanent Secretary in the Information Communication Technology (MOICT) ministry, Dr. Godfrey Kibuuka. He reported that the Ugandan government has started laying a 2000km2 national transmission backbone cable that will be ready for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Kampala from 23-25 November 2007.
"In the first stage, we are putting up a 2000km2 of the cable that is intended to ensure high quality and low cost services and will reach all the major towns of Uganda by November this year," said Kubuuka.
"This project would introduce office automation, video conferencing, electronic mail and reduce the cost of doing business," he said in a paper he presented to the half-day workshop.
He also pointed out that the present Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) infrastructure coverage has reached 745 sub-counties out of the 926.
The ICT Minister, Dr. Ham Mulira said the youth in particular will benefit from the backbone by having access to affordable voice and data services like e-learning, telemedicine, e-commerce, and out-sourcing.
The rapid growth of the sector has brought many opportunities for the youths by the creation of jobs and innovations. "Today many ICT companies employ mainly the youths because of their easy adaptability to ICT's," said Mulira.
"The project however is to complement the private sector but not to compete with it and the private sector should concentrate their efforts and investments on using the infrastructure to provide several varieties of services to the public," he said.
He said the government will also develop district information centres after the establishment of the national backbone.
"The centres will act as information sharing and distributing points in the districts, these developments however require Ugandans to have the necessary skills to benefit fully from the ICT's," he said.
Meanwhile, Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) executive director Eng. Patrick Masambu said that while they strive to achieve an equitable information society, it must be based on sustainable economic and social development.
"Market led solutions alone cannot automatically lead to equitable service or lower cost, particularly in less profitable areas or low income social groups," he said.
In order to balance commercial objectives with the principle of equitable access to service, we should focus on public-private partnerships, said Masambu.
"ICTs are enablers and not an end in themselves. Our challenge is to harness ICT's for human development. This requires awareness raising and consensus building across all levels of society," he concluded.
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