AITEC MOZAMBIQUE ICT CONVENTION: Ministry of Science & Technology announces 2009 National ICT Congress in partnership with AITEC Africa

The Ministry of Science & Technology has announced that this year’s National ICT Congress will be held at the Centro Internacional de Conferencia Joaquim Chissano over 17-18 September, with the theme “Optimising network management & developing content for the fibre era”.

Announcing the convention, the Minister, Hon Venancio Massingue, said the conference was taking place at an ideal time to empower the country’s ICT community with the necessary knowledge to make best use of the new and plentiful bandwidth the country will have available following the landing of the Seacom cable. “We are entering a new era of high-volume and low-cost bandwidth, which is going to take the country to a higher level of ICT development, enabling the ICT sector to act as the catalyst to stimulate growth and productivity across all other sectors.”

Last year’s Convention attracted over 500 delegates from government and the private sector to participate in sessions addressed by local and international experts on a wide range of topics.

Sean Moroney, Chairman of AITEC Africa, organisers of the event, said: “This year, we are going to be challenging the country’s ICT professionals and managers to think out the box. In what we call the ‘fibre era’ with abundant bandwidth, they have to stop thinking conservatively and continuiung to work as in the past. Now is the time for the country’s indigenous software development drive to take off, along with local hardware assembly, network development and capacty growth – including most importantly, human capacity.”

The Platinum Sponsor of the the event is Mcel, Mozambique’s leading mobile operator. Seacom, whose undersea fibre cable is going live in Mozambique this year, is sponsoring the networking cocktail reception at the event. Vodacom Mozambique, the country’s other mobile operator, will be hosting a VIP Lounge for participants at the event. Teledata is the Internet sponsor.

The two keynote speakers for the convention will be focusing on the new challenges for the country’s ICT community:

• Joe Manchu of the Manchu Group in South Africa will speak on “New technologies and strategies and ways of working to take advantage of new business and social development opportunities”

• Mariéme Jamme , President of SpotOne Global Solution Group in the  UK, will speak on “Responding to the challenges and opportunities of Mozambique’s fibre revolution: How to develop new ways of thinking and acting to overcome established, limited business practices”.

The Convention will include an expo to provide a platform for local and international ICT suppliers and solutions providers to market their products and services. An innovation at this year’s event will be the Software & Content Development Showcase and the eDevelopment Showcase in the expo. SME’s developing solutions or products in these areas will be invited to exhibit in the showcases at a preferential rate.

“We encourage all ICT enterprises, big and small, to participate in this key national event, as well colleagues in the education sector, central and local government and SMEs and large companies in the private sector,” said Minister Massingue. “it is a unique opportunity for all players in the ICT community, both private sector and government, to meet together, learn bout each other’s projects and seek ways of doing business together. There is an urgent need to develop more local content and local solutions and this will be a major focus of the event.”