Time of Zambia: THE Government has said rural areas should be connected to the information communication technology (ICT) network to encourage uniform development with other areas.

President Rupiah Banda said that the Government had come up with a national ICT policy to promote the use of ICT in rural areas.

He said this in a speech read for him by Communications and Transport Minister, Geoffrey Lungwangwa during the official opening of the fourth Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation conference at Zambezi Sun Hotel in Livingstone yesterday.

Mr Banda said the conference, being held under the theme 'Connecting rural communities in Africa', was ideal as the world moved towards a society where information needed to be available any time and anywhere.

He said Zambia had instituted a number of measures, including the formulation of the national ICT policy, to achieve rural connectivity and realise the Vision 2030 of making Zambia a prosperous middle-income country by that year.

He challenged the continent to resolve the bottlenecks to rural connectivity to foster development and achieve millennium development goal number eight.

Mr Banda hoped the conference would allow experts an opportunity to digest the impact of the global economic crisis in the communication sector and enable Zambia to address the challenges.

Speaking earlier, Communications and Transport Permanent Secretary, Dominic Sichinga said the conference was being held at the right time when Zambia was in the process of passing the national ICT policy.

Intel Sales and Marketing Group vice-president, Gerrard Greeve said the organisation had remained committed to closing the digital divide and making communication affordable.