Message from Vice-President Ahmed Afif on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (May 17, 2023) |18 May 2023
Ahmed Afif Vice-President of the Republic of Seychelles
‘ICT is important in promoting and communicating our shared values and common goals’
“On May 17 of every year, we join the global community in celebrating the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD). Every year, to mark the occasion International Telecommunication Union (ITU) raises awareness on a particular issue. This year the focus is on ‘Empowering the least developed countries through information and communication technologies’.
“According to the ITU, 1/3 of the 2.7 billion people in the world who remain unconnected to the Internet lives in the Least Developed Countries (LDC). The ITU is calling for all nations to join its partner2connect digital coalition, which has the aim of connecting the unconnected in the LDC.
“Every day we see how digital technologies are changing and redefining the meaning of connecting to one another, to the vast opportunity and knowledge so that everyone everywhere can enjoy the benefits of technology. Seychelles is not a Least Developed Country, however, the government recognises that there are members of our communities who are not connected or even have access to ICT. We are also cognisant of the fact that for many people, connectivity is a matter of choice while for others it is essential to conduct day-to-day activities.
“ICT’s roles in economic development is vast such as, in enhancing education by promoting lifelong learning and access to educational resources, improving healthcare delivery, in providing opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs to access markets and customers. ICT is important in promoting and communicating our shared values and common goals. These include supporting our democratic institutions and the value of freedom of speech and expression so that we can all lead a healthy, happy and meaningful life together in our community.
“To make the maximum use of ICT we must continue to work together, both the public and private sector, to develop and improve our ICT infrastructure. We recognise the important role of the telecommunication service providers in improving access and connectivity to ICT services.
“Before the end of this year, we expect to have three submarine cable systems in operation, which will provide even more capacity for everyone. The sector is continuously investing to expand and upgrade the telecommunication networks and as a result contribute to economic growth of the country. We can see this today as most subscribers of fixed broadband services have fibre cable connectivity. The mobile operators are also expanding access to their mobile networks and putting up more sites to provide and improve service coverage.
“I would like to give the stakeholders the assurance that the government is committed to ensuring that we all have connectivity and access to ICT at affordable and reasonable prices. We are doing this by putting in place the right policies and regulations that will facilitate the establishment of a market place where effective competition can take place.
“Indeed, we are seeing new broadband products on the market providing improved speeds and quality than before. We are seeing more unlimited packages, which is what many individuals and businesses have been asking for. Government notes that international bandwidth capacity has increased by 266% since March 2022 and it is expected that data traffic will soon follow this trend. I would like to make a call to our mobile service providers to consider improving the prices and data allowances for mobile prepaid services. This would go a long way to promote and increase access and usage to ICT for the most vulnerable segment of our community.
“To our business enterprises who are the pillars of our economy, let us continue to come up with innovative services and adopt the latest digital platforms and technologies to promote usage of ICT for the betterment of our digital economy.”
Ahmed Afif