Exhibitors who participate in the first ICT EXPO said digitalization is crucial for Ethiopia to realize its development targets.
The participants told The Ethiopian Herald that it is difficult to think of a nation without proper digital development as the world is now interconnected through digital developments in all streams.
Teferi Solomon is one of the Exhibitors from SNAP Trading and Industry Plc. who was displaying his new assembled personal notebook computers, tablets to the visitors.
“Any country out of modern digital technology system will not move further. Ethiopia has started utilizing various technologies which indeed need to go further strengthened,” he stated.
The activity that we are working at the moment focuses on knowledge transfer which hopefully develop more to entirely producing technological products at home instead of importing raw materials, he added.
He said that we are introducing new products to the local market and deliver to customers with reasonable price. This significantly save the hard currency that the country spends for importation.
Jone Liao is the other Chinese Exhibitor. He is a Product Solution Manger of ZTE Smart Education Solution. According to him, digital technology is essential for promoting and expanding education through deploying various technologies which promotes efficient and quality education.
He said, “As education is instrumental for nations’ development, deploying innovative digital technologies would add up to develop inclusive and quality education in Ethiopia.”
Jone highlighted that his company has already undertaken a school project with the Ministry of Education in 120 Secondary schools across the nation through building efficient digital technologies that could aid the instructional process.
He said, “We are also planning to upgrade these technologies and reach all places across the nation through regional education networks.”
Investing more on education and supporting the sector using latest digital technologies are more relevant for the development of the nation, he stated.
CIMAC-Ethiopia Sales and Contract Management Senior Manager Getachew Gebreyohannes on his part said that the government of Ethiopia is giving due emphasis to digitalization and at the moment notable progress is at hand in various streams.
As the nation is moving towards middle income economic status by 2025, digital technologies would create possibilities and support the farsighted development vision of the country, he expressed his anticipation.
“We are supplying software for public and private organizations which enables them to efficiently plan their resources and services so as to make them more profitable, he added.
It is crucial to transform businesses for a better tomorrow through digitalization. He said adding “The software enables organizations to manage all of their planning processes to be under a single code system in an integrated manner,”
All the experts underlined that almost all sectors including finance, agriculture, education and service sectors need a closer technological support.
It was learned that digitalization can help the nation in all aspects of a country’s socioeconomic transformation process such as the areas of finance, Health, Agriculture and Education.
According to the information from Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) Ethiopia is ready for a new digital age. Currently the nation is taking practical steps to realize digitalization in almost all streams so as to expedite its socioeconomic development.
As the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II) demands rapid technological development, Ethiopia’s ICT landscape is rapidly evolving. As part of this Plan, the
Science and technology sector is expected to transform nation’s economy taking advantage of over 14 billion USD investments in various development sectors including agriculture, finance, education and health sub-sectors.
As the Ethiopia Country Commercial Guide recent report indicates, the nation has developed a list of over 200 electronic services needed for development in the coming few years.
To this effect, it has already built an “IT Park” in a place customary known as ‘Bole Lemi’ located approximately 18 miles outside of Addis Ababa to attract ICT service companies, particularly those involved in outsourcing.
[www.ethpress.gov.et]