Rwanda has been re-elected a member state of the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for 2014-2018. The country garnered 110 votes at the ITU Plenipotentiary conference in Busan, South Korea. ITU has 193 member countries but 176 cast their votes. The council is tasked with policymaking to ensure that the ITU keeps up with the world’s rapidly changing telecommunication environment and deciding on administrative issues of the organisation. Rwanda’s Minister for Youth and ICT Jean Philbert Nsengimana said: “This is an opportunity to keep contributing to shaping the global ICT for Development agenda.” He commended all ITU member states for renewed confidence in Rwanda to serve on ITU council. Rwanda continues to be one of the fastest growing African countries in ICT–from e-commerce and e-services, mobile technologies, applications development and automation, to becoming a regional centre for training of top quality ICT professionals. Nsengimana, who last week addressed the 19th ITU plenipotentiary conference in Busan, South Korea, noted that ICT should be at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals, beyond 2015. “Over the last 10 years, Rwanda has worked with the ITU to promote broadband as an enabler of socio-economic transformation in Africa and beyond.” In 2007, Rwanda co-hosted with ITU the connect Africa Summit which resulted into more than $70 billion dollar in broadband infrastructure in Africa over the five years that followed the conference. In 2013, Rwanda and ITU hosted Transform Summit and objective is now to attract $300bn investments in the African ICT sector over the next five years. In line with this commitment, the Summit adopted the Smart Africa Manifesto, which was further endorsed by the 22nd Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly.
