ICT Sector can activate and accelerate Uganda’s Socio-Economic Development, Says Minister

The Minister of ICT  Hon. Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has urged the country to take advantage of the well developed paths in the ICT sector to activate and accelerate Uganda’s socio-economic development to enable the country solve most of its own problems. He made the remarks while officiating during the Validation Workshop on the e-Government Master Plan that was held on the 23^rd of August 2012 at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala
The Minister likened the pace of Uganda’s development at the time of independence to that of South Korea and questioned what has caused such dramatic differences at the levels of growth and development at present between the two countries. He pointed to the relevant contributions that IT companies such as APPLE and SAMSUNG has contributed to the Growth Domestic Product of their Country and hinted that Uganda’s ICT sector can as well, contribute to significant amount of the Country’s GDP and hence the importance of the e-Government Master Plan
“Uganda and South Korea was comparable in terms of per-capita income at the time of independence. There is now very big differences – what explains this dramatic development in South Korea?”
The E-Government Master Plan Validation workshop was organized by the National Information and Technology Authority in Uganda (NITA-U). This process was a joint initiative of NITA-U, the Ministry of ICT in conjunction with the National IT industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) of South Korea. The Development of the e-Government Master Plan involved several stages including conducting surveys and making analysis of the current status of the Political Economic and Technical issues in the country and the development of the e-Government Vision and Strategy. The final part is the production of the e-Government Master Plan for Uganda
NIPA Consultants were in Uganda conducting surveys on the status and expectations of e-Governance in Uganda and most of the stakeholders inputs were incorporated towards the development of this Master Plan. The validation workshop therefore called upon key stakeholders in the project to seek their final views, opinions and validate information captured in the Master Plan as this will have a tremendous effect on e-Government in Uganda.
The validation workshop also saw stakeholders prioritizing on key areas of the project which included among others the urgent need for the project to address the issue of the National Identification System, developing a National IT Standard Framework and improving on Public Key Infrastructures.
The National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) was established by an Act of  Parliament (National Information Technology Authority, Uganda Act of 2009).  The statutory mandate of NITA-U is to coordinate, promote and monitor Information Technology (IT) developments in Uganda within the context of National Social and Economic development