Country Aims for Peace And Development

Highway Africa News Agency (Grahamstown)
NEWS
December 12, 2003
Posted to the web December 12, 2003

By Tumaole Mohlaoli
Geneva
Sudan is on the brink of reaching a peace agreement between the government and
the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels operating in Southern Sudan.
The Sudanese Minister of Information and Communication, Dr Elzahawi Ibrahim
Malik, spoke about his country's aspirations for development in Geneva on
Friday.
Sudan was attending the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which
has been running in Switzerland since Wednesday. In his address to the media,
Malik said Sudan is pushing for the establishment of a Digital Solidarity Fund
(DSF) to help mobilise the development of Information Communication Technology
(ICT) in his country. Negotiations to end the civil war in Sudan have been
going well and an agreement is expected to be reached before the end of the
year.
Sudan has had a civil war raging for the past 20 years. "The source of this
whole conflict is really bad communication between our people," said Malik. "We
need to come together as Sudanese people and communicate about our problems and
resolve them," he added. The SPLA rebels, from the Christian south of Sudan,
initially wanted south Sudan to be independent of the mainly Arabic North.
"Signing an agreement to reach peace is not the main goal," said Malik.
"Sustainable peace is the main goal." If the peace plan worked, then Sudan
could concentrate on development and rebuilding the country. Sudan has already
taken steps to develop the country's infrastructure. "There is a fund that has
been established to finance the development of ICTs. But this fund is limited,
so this is why we are asking the developed countries of the world to also
establish a fund," Malik said.
Sudan now boasts 60 000 Internet connections. There are now 900 000 telephone
lines, 600 000 mobile phone users and 60 percent of the population in Sudan is
literate. Malik also said that it is more likely now that foreign and local
investors could return to Sudan and rebuild what was destroyed during the war.
The Sudanese government has also called for a second telephone operating
company to establish operations in Sudan. The government has launched an e-
governance programme whereby people can access government information on the
Internet. E-government has also spread to some parts of southern Sudan.
Plans have been made to implement a programme of establishing Internet
accessibility to the rural areas of Sudan. "We plan to develop ICTs that will
be geared at promoting and concentrating on farming and livestock industry,"
said Malik.
Malik declared Sudan's unwavering support for the draft Declaration of
Principles and said that his country would do all it could to support the
second leg of the Summit to be held in Tunisia in 2005. President Al-Bashir of
Sudan initiated a national reconciliation forum that was held two months ago
and was attended by representatives of all political parties in the opposition
and local government administrators. A number of resolutions and
recommendations were made at this meeting and the president responded by
lifting the national security censorship on newspapers and cancelling the list
of those banned from travelling overseas.

   

  ==============================================================================
 Copyright © 2003 Highway Africa News Agency. All rights reserved. Distributed
                   by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  ==============================================================================