• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Ethiopia to Link Djibouti With Optic Fiber Network: Official

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 April 2005, 09:00 CDT

Ethiopia to link Djibouti with optic fiber network: official

ADDIS ABABA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has started laying a multimillion-US-dollar optic fiber network that will link up with the submarine cables in neighboring Djibouti, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday.

Meles said his country has started laying the 10,000 km-long optic fiber network throughout the country to fulfill the program.

"We have now started laying 10,000 km of optic fiber network throughout the country and to link this up with the submarine cables in Djibouti also on optic fiber," he said.

At an international conference on information and communication technologies (ICT) in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian prime minister said the optic fiber network link program with Djibouti is expected to be finalized by the year 2008.

"We plan to continuously expand and improve the utilization of ICT to provide high quality government services and to improve governance across the board," Meles said.

He described ICT as a crucial means to fight poverty in countries like Ethiopia where the majority of the estimated 70 million people are living under poverty.

Ethiopia is still among a few African countries that have not yet liberalized its telecommunication sectors. The Horn of Africa nation is also one of the least ICT connected countries in the world with an average of one telephone line for over 100,000 people.

Currently, not more than 200,000 people and 50,000 people are using mobile telephone and internet service throughout the country.

Meles told the gathering that his government will give due attention to promote ICT to fight poverty in the country.

"We recognized that while ICT may be a luxury for the rich, for us the poor countries, it is a vital and essential tool for fighting poverty, for beating poverty that kills and ensuring our survival," he said.

Meles also said there is a plan to ensure universal access and internet connectivity to all the tens of thousands of rural kebeles of the country over the next two to three years.

"In the coming years we plan to continuously expend the coverage and improve the quality of ICT based distance education and training. An educational ICT network has been extended to all our over 500 districts. We need high quality education in order to fight poverty," Meles added.

Government officials and experts at the gathering will discuss the use of ICT in fighting poverty in Africa in the coming two days.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

More News in this Category