First ever ICT conference launched in Kabul

Hundreds of participants from the growing information and communications technology (ICT} industry in Afghanistan on Tuesday opened the first ever ICT conference in the capital, Kabul. The two-day forum, jointly organised by Afghanistan’s communications ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will showcase investment opportunities, and promote ICT awareness within the country. The forum will also launch an easy-to-use online capability for registering Afghan (AF) website addresses, according to UNDP. “Afghanistan has made considerable progress in the field of communications during the past four years but still much [needs to] be done to provide communication services to all parts of the country,” Afghanistan’s first Vice-President Ahmad Zai Massoud told participants of the conference. The post-conflict country has taken enormous technological strides in the field of communications after nearly three decades of brutal civil war and civil strife. Four years ago, Afghanistan had only 20,000 telephone lines in the whole country. There are now more than a million new cell phone users. By the end of 2006, the wireless fixed telephone lines will reach 285,000, allowing not only voice, but also data exchange throughout the network, connecting hundreds of thousands of households in the country, according to the UNDP statement released on the eve of the conference. “One of our main objectives is to increase awareness and explain the significance of ICT among all communities of the country, including the private sector, government officials and civil societies,” Minister of Communications Amirzai Sangin told the gathering. It would provide a stage for creating coordination between the government, private sector, donor agencies and other stakeholders to form cohesive ICT development programmes for Afghanistan, Sangin stated, calling on the need for education and creating a strong communications infrastructure in the country for the development of ICT. “We are planning to create a national optical fibre network along the major highways circling the country and also broadband connections will be made possible through links to similar networks in neighbouring countries,” Sangin explained. “It would address two major problems: the high cost and limited bandwidth capacity in the current satellite-based communication technology in the country,” he said.