CS/IT/TC/V/7
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Distr.
LIMITED
CS/IT/TC/
March 2010
Original: ENGLISH
COMMON MARKET FOR EASTERN
AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
Sixth Meeting of the Committee on Information Technology
Nairobi, Kenya
23 - 25 March 2010
REPORT OF THE SIXTH MEETING OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
CS/IT/TC/V/7
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LIST OF ACRONYMS
ASYCUDA Automated System for Customs Data
CIRT Computer Incidents Response Team
COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
COMTEL COMESA Telecommunications Company
EAC East African Community
EASSY East African Submarine Cable System
EDF European Development Fund
FOSS Free and Open Source Software
GIS Geographical Information Systems
GIXP Government Internet Exchange Point
ICT Information and Communications Technology
ITU International Telecommunications Union
KeLC Kenya e-Learning Centre
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
REC Regional Economic Communities
RIXP Regional Internet Exchange Point
RMCE Regional Multi-disciplinary Centre of Excellence
SAN Storage Area Network
TIA Telecommunications Industry Association
UN United Nations
UNCITRAL United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
UNPAN United Nations Public Administration Network
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The Sixth Technical Committee Meeting on Information Technology was held from 23rd to 25th March 2010 at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
B. ATTENDANCE, OPENING OF THE MEETING, ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA AND ORGANIZATION OF WORK
Attendance
2. The meeting was attended by delegates from Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The East African Community (EAC) was also represented. The list of participants is attached as Annex I.
Opening Session (Agenda item 1)
Opening Remarks
3. An opening statement was made by the Director of Information and Networking of the COMESA Secretariat, Mr. Sherin Shoukry, on behalf of Mr. Sindiso Ngwenya, the Secretary General of COMESA.
4. He thanked the people and the Government of the Republic of Kenya for their warm welcome and facilities provided, and urged the committee to remain focused in its programme of ensuring that the region becomes a knowledge society, in line with the developments in the rest of the world and reminded them that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) were a critical factor in ensuring the social and economic development of the region.
5. Mr. Shoukry highlighted the agenda items that were going to be discussed in the meeting and emphasized on the outcomes of the study on Free and Open Source Software and on the regional Data Center. A comprehensive progress report was also going to be given to show progress made on the previous council decisions.
6. He concluded by wishing the meeting fruitful deliberations and encouraging them to come up with sound recommendations which would have impact on the region.
7. A welcome statement was delivered by Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications of the Republic of Kenya on behalf of Honourable Samuel Poghisio, the Minister of Information and Communications.
8. The Permanent Secretary started by giving the meeting an update on the EASSY fibre cable which had landed the previous day in Mombasa and was launched by the Minister of Information and Communications.
9. He mentioned that this had improved communication beyond imagination but that there were still a number of challenges especially as regards local content, and there was an even greater need for the region to work out modalities on how best countries may link together to share connectivity, especially for the land-locked countries.
10. Data centers for storage and backing up of the organisation’s data from the various information systems was a critical factor for the development of ICT and he then gave examples of how the Kenyan government was proposing to assist ICT businesses to develop and he highlighted a KSH10bn investment for a multi-media science park to be developed in phases over a period of ten years. He pointed out that Kenya has seen how ICT’s can contribute effectively to good governance and increase in revenue through their effective application in areas such as digitisation of the national land and company registries.
11. He emphasised the need for the region to embrace ICT’s as an important tool for national and regional development and went on to highlight the achievements of Kenya in the area of ICT. He added that based on the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Model adopted by the COMESA Council of Ministers in March 2003, Kenya’s national ICT policy aims to encourage sustained economic growth and poverty reduction, promote social justice and equity, mainstream gender in national development, empower youth and disadvantaged groups, stimulate investment and innovation in ICT, and achieve universal access.
12. He was therefore proud to inform the meeting that with the policy as a guiding factor, Kenya has seen significant positive changes in the ICT sector over the last ten years.
13. The delegate from Malawi delivered a vote of thanks. In his statement, the delegate thanked the Government of Kenya for hosting the meeting and encouraged his fellow delegates to effectively deliberate and meet the expectations of the Minister and the region in effectively implementing the ICT programmes. He urged his colleagues to join hands and work as a team in order to achieve the purpose of the committee.
Election of the Bureau (Agenda item 2)
14. A bureau was elected to preside over the deliberations of the meeting as follows:
Chairperson : Kenya
Vice Chairperson : Uganda
Rapporteur : Seychelles
Adoption of the Agenda and Organization of Work (Agenda item 3)
15. The meeting adopted the agenda and the organisation of work as follows:
1. Opening of the Meeting
2. Election of the Bureau
3. Adoption of the Agenda and Organisation of Work
4. Progress Report from the Secretariat
a. Update on the IT Master Plan
b. E-Legislation
c. GIS
d. Regional Centre of Excellence
e. Charging Policy
f. E-Government
g. E-Learning
h. ICT Trade Facilitation – Customs Modernisation
5. Cyber Security
6. FOSS Study and the Proposed Way Forward on FOSS
7. Microsoft Presentation
8. Outcomes of the study on the Regional Data Centre
9. WorkPlan 2010
10. Any Other Business
11. Adoption of the Report and Closure of the Meeting
16. The meeting adopted the following working hours:
Tuesday 23rd March, 2010 : 09:00hrs - 17:00hrs
Wednesday 24th March, 2010 : 09:00hrs - 16:00hrs
Thursday 25th March, 2010 : 09:00hrs – 14:00hrs
C. ACCOUNT OF PROCEEDINGS
Progress Report from the Secretariat (Agenda item 4)
17. A detailed and comprehensive progress report from the Secretariat was presented to the meeting. The meeting highlighted the achievements made since the fifth technical committee meeting which was held in Mahe, Seychelles as well as the challenges faced in the implementation of some of the programmes.
18. The decisions of the Council meetings of June, 2009 were highlighted as:
E-Legislation
(a) Member States are urged to accede to the UN Convention on the
Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts (2005),
and to incorporate the provisions of the Convention in their respective
national laws, particularly, in view of the launch of the Customs
Union. Member States are therefore encouraged to set a deadline
for the enactment of these laws;
(b) The Secretariat should develop regulations to enable member States
facilitate secure electronic transactions;
(c) The COMESA Court of Justice should be empowered to facilitate
online mediation to resolve disputes that may arise from electronic
transactions; and
(d) COMESA’s e-Legislation programme should have a component on e-
Waste, specifically to outline how such waste should be disposed of
in the Member states.
IT Master Plan
(a) The Secretariat should update the IT Master Plan to include the
proposed programmes and projects and list them in the order of the
suggested priorities;
(b) Member States are encouraged to develop standard information
systems which may be shared with other Member States; and
(c) Member States should share their respective I.T. Master Plans and
ICT policies with the Secretariat.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
(a) The Secretariat should create an enabling environment for
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to facilitate informed
decision-making for the region’s programmes; and
(b) Member States should collaborate with the Secretariat to provide
the necessary data from various programmes to facilitate the
development of useful regional GIS applications.
ASYCUDA
a) Member States should provide the necessary resources to support,
maintain and modernise Customs systems, based on options provided in
the study on sustainability, with high-level government support;
b) The Secretariat should set up a Regional Customs Modernisation Centre
to assist in customs modernisation and capacity building which will ensure
ownership by COMESA of the implementation process;
c) The Secretariat, with UNCTAD support should develop an ASYCUDA
online training for delivery on the COMESA e-Learning platform;
d) The Secretariat should provide a link on its web portal to the ASYCUDA
website to facilitate discussions and sharing of information;
e) Member States should consider a staff retention strategy to ensure
continued support of ASYCUDA systems;
f) UNCTAD and COMESA Secretariat should work out a strategy for the
upgrading of ASYCUDA implementation in the region.
Regional Center of Excellence
a) Council decided that the Secretariat should work closely with Mauritius to
fast-track the completion of the paper on the Regional Centre.
Charging Policy
a) Council decided that the Secretariat should identify the appropriate
mechanisms for implementation as a means of sustainability of information
systems.
Free and Open Source Software
a) Council decided that Member States should update their ICT policies to
include FOSS.
E-Government Programme
(a) Member States should ensure that the e-Government programme is
given prominence and led at the highest political level;
(b) The Secretariat should collaborate and harmonise with other
Regional Economic Communities in the implementation of the e-
Government programme;
(c) The Secretariat is urged to establish modalities for capacity
development within the e-Government programme;
(d) Member States are encouraged to have a link to the e-Government
portal from their national e-Government portals; and
(e) Member States should provide the COMESA Secretariat with their
focal points on e-Government programmes to ensure the provision
and relevance of information on the portal.
E-Learning Programme
(a) The Secretariat should enter into a Memorandum of Understanding
with the Kenya e-Learning Center to ensure maximum operation of
the installed e-Learning platform;
(b) The Secretariat should organise a workshop on e-Learning
Strategies to work out the implementation modalities for the MoU;
And
(c) Member States should provide the Secretariat with their e-Learning
focal points for the successful implementation of the e-Learning
programme.
Regional Data Centre
(a) Council decided that the Secretariat should conduct a study to draw
up the Terms of Reference for setting up of a data centre for
effective storage of the information that it hosts in the various
systems and to serve as a regional infrastructure to promote secure
electronic transactions
(b) Council decided that the Secretariat should pursue the
implementation of the work plan for IT and prioritize for
implementation as approved in the IT Master Plan.
19. The meeting was then informed that these Council decisions had been presented to the third meeting of Ministers responsible for transport, communications and energy for noting in Djibouti in October, 2009.
20. The Secretariat then proceeded to inform the meeting of the progress which had so far been made as regards these Council decisions.
21. The meeting considered and commented further on terms of reference and concept papers which had been prepared, and studies which had been completed. The terms of reference, concept papers and studies reviewed by the meeting were on:
· The IT Priority Master Plan
· A paper on regional systems which may be developed
· Development of regulations to facilitate secure electronic transactions
· A COMESA e-Waste programme
· Means of Sustainability for COMESA Information Systems
· Regional customs modernisation training strategy
· Terms of Reference for Capacity Development for the e-Government programme
· The Memorandum of Understanding between the Estonia e-Governance Academy and COMESA on technical assistance in the establishment of a regional e-governance Academy
· The Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) and COMESA on collaboration on the e-Government programme
· The Memorandum of Understanding on e-Learning between the COMESA Secretariat and the Government of Kenya
· The FOSS Study
· A plan for implementing the FOSS programme
· The Study on the Regional Data Centre
a. IT Master Plan
22. The meeting was requested to review the IT Master Plan which had been earlier circulated to them for their comments. They were requested to consider it as an IT Priority Master Plan which would have the priority IT activities and programmes for implementation. A further call was made to the Member States requesting them to share their IT Master plans and policies with the Secretariat.
23. The meeting then considered a paper which outlined regional information systems which could be developed and which would be beneficial to the Member States. The two proposed systems were a cross-border traders information system and an online business directory.
24. Regarding the setting up of a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP), the meeting noted that this issue was being discussed under the COMTEL project. The meeting also learnt that the Government of Kenya was in the process of setting up a Government Internet Exchange Point (GIXP) to keep government traffic within the government network and enhance security and confidentiality of government data.
25. A presentation was made on the utilisation of IT in the COMESA region. Efforts were being stepped up in line with the cooperation of the regional economic communities (REC’s) under the tripartite arrangement for information sharing and harmonization among the REC’s and the Member States.
Recommendations
26. The meeting made the following recommendations:
(i) COMESA Secretariat should carry out a thorough requirements analysis to ascertain the needs of the two systems