Africa Telecom '98 to Be Held in S. Africa

South Africa has been chosen to host Africa Telecom '98 next year,a major conference and exhibition organized by the InternationalTelecommunication Union, which is expected to attract up to 6,000foreign visitors.

Hosting the conference represented a major breakthrough for SouthAfrica and paved the way for Africa to wire into the globalinformation society, Post Telecommunications and BroadcastingMinister Jay Naidoo said Thursday.

"At the end of the conference we hope to have concrete proposalson the way forward for African telecommunications. Of the 700million people in Africa, only 12 million have telephones, of whichfive million are in South Africa, Naidoo said.

The conference, to be held at the National Exhibition Center inJohannesburg from May 4-10 next year, would run under the theme ofAfrican Renaissance.

Issues which would be discussed included regulatory frameworks,privatization policies, trade agreements on telecommunicationsservices and infrastructure development.

Other topics would include terrestrial wireless communications,satellite communications, the Internet in Africa, rural andlow-density area telecommunications and the cellular telephoneindustry.

The event is expected to attract industry leaders at the highestlevel from all over the world. "This will be the largesttelecommunications gathering in the history of the African continentand will stimulate debate between government and industry," Naidoosaid.