Discours du Directeur du BDT

H.E. Mr. William Ruto, Deputy President of the Republic, Kenya, 

H.E. Mr. Joseph Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), Kenya,

H.E. Mr. Fred O. Matiang'i, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya,

Excellencies (Ministers and Ambassadors) here present, 

Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General, ITU

Chairman and Director General, Communications Authority of Kenya

Representatives of ITU sector members, Academia, ITU Centers of Excellence, private sector and partners here present

Distinguished delegates Ladies and Gentlemen,

 
It is indeed a great honour and pleasure for me to welcome you to the 2016 Global ICT Capacity Building Symposium.

I would like to thank the Government and the people of Kenya for hosting this important event and for the hospitality extended to all of us.

Kenya has become an important hub of ICT innovation in the region and even worldwide. We therefore found Nairobi as a natural venue to assemble and discuss capacity building challenges and opportunities in our fast changing ICT sector.

Your presence here today, Your Excellency Mr. Vice-President of Kenya, is the testimony of the commitment of the Highest Authorities of Kenya to capacity building.

We understand why we have so many ICT-based success stories in Kenya.

Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen,

You will certainly agree with me that capacities cannot be developed through a single intervention, or by one single entity.

I am therefore pleased that Ministers and other high level officials representing Governments, Telecommunication Regulatory bodies, Private Sector, UN Agencies, Academia, NGOs, took the time to be here and to share their diverse experiences.

Let us all take advantage of this diverse and high-level participation so that we come out at the end of this event, with valuable recommendations on how to optimize the use of ICTs as a tool for building capacity and skills development.

Let me seize this occasion to thank all the partners who have been working with us and assure them that the work we do together is impacting people’s lives across the globe. We will recognize some of them during the closing ceremony of the Symposium.

I would to conclude by the following challenge.

Let us make sure that no child should any longer stay illiterate just because brick and mortar schools are too far for them to attend when we have such a high penetration level of mobile technology and the availability of the Internet.

Let us take up this challenge together for the betterment of human kind.

A sante sana.