President Paul Kagame has received the 2014
World Telecommunication Information Society Award along with President
Park Geun-Hye of Korea and Carlos Slim Helu, president of the Carlos
Slim Foundation.
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| President Kagame is presented with the 2014 World Telecommunication Information Society award by ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure in Geneva, Switzerland. Village Urugwiro. |
The Award is presented by the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU) to individuals who have made exceptional contribution to improving
lives of world citizens through ICTs.
"I want to express the sense of honour I feel in receiving this
award. I do it in the humblest of ways knowing that this is an award of
value that builds on the efforts of all Rwandans that have worked hard
and embraced the policies and strategies of our development, that in a
big part have been driven by ICT," said the Head of State, following the
presentation of the award, a function that took place in Geneva.
"This is the result of their efforts and progress and working
together in our country, and also working notably with ITU that has been
very supportive of efforts in Rwanda."
President Kagame commended the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and
ITU Secretary General Dr Hamadoun Toure, who he said had kept the ICT
agenda relevant in the socio-economic development of countries.
Responding to a question at a round table following the awards
ceremony, President Kagame said Rwanda's ICT strategy is based on
integrating key sectors in a system that combines connectivity, enabling
policy and regulatory framework, as well as skills development and
networks.
President Kagame, who co-chairs the UN Broadband Commission with
Mexican mogul Carlos Slim Helu, reiterated the importance of
public-private partnerships in developing the ICT sector.
He pointed out that it was a win-win situation and that no one entity can do everything on its own.
In his keynote address at the ceremony, Dr Toure called for broadband
to be a central element of the post-2015 development agenda.He
highlighted the increased investment in the ICT sector in Africa and
noted that since the 2007 Connect Africa Summit in Kigali, the private
sector had invested $70 billion in Africa.
"One example is in 2007 there was no undersea cable connecting the Cape to Cairo, now we have four," Dr Toure said.
The event served as the occassion to mark The World Telecommunication
and Information Society Day which has been celebrated annually on May
17, since 1969 and marks the establishment of the ITU in 1865.
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