President Paul Kagame addressing the 71st United Nations General Assembly
Everyone in the world should have access to internet to enable them instant communication.
President Paul Kagame while addressing the 71st United Nations General Assembly Thursday emphasised this need saying, “Everyone in the world needs to have access to high-speed internet”.
About half of the world population doesn’t have access to internet and mostly in the developing world.
According to the ‘State of Broadband report 2016’, “3.9 billion people – 53% of the world’s population –will still be offline at the end of 2016.”
For the Rwandan head of state, developing countries should promote Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to overcome red tape which are an obstacle to global prosperity and well-being.
With equal participation in the digital economy and access to all information opportunities, the internet can empower everyone and enrich their lives, and for the world to be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The International telecommunication Union targets to connect 60% of the global population by 2020 – equivalent to bringing another 1.2 billion people online over the next four years.
“I commend UNESCO and the International Telecommunication Union, for the good work they have done, and continue to do,” Kagame told the UN General Assembly.
In November 2014, Rwanda switched to the fourth Generation Long-Term Evolution (4G-LTE), high speed internet. This has been possible through Olleh Rwanda Networks-a successful joint venture company between Rwanda and Korea Telecom.
The landlocked country has laid over 3,000km of fibre optic cable since 2009 and targets to extend 4G network to 95% of Population by 2017 and also export to neighbouring countries.
President Kagame told the UN General assembly ,”We have seen the importance of forging meaningful partnerships with the private sector to improve the speed of delivery.”
One of the pillars of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 aims to turn the country into a knowledge-based economy.
