Tunisia has the highest Internet usage per capita in North Africa
Tunisia has the highest Internet usage per capita in North Africa
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  • 승인 2005.03.01 12:01
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Amb. Othman Jerandi
According to the international technology research institute, IDC, Tunisia has the highest internet usage per capita in North Africa. However, while Tunisia's IT sector may compare well with its regional peers, there is still plenty of room for expansion. The sector generates an annual turnover of some 166.5Millions dollars -- around 1% of GDP -- and consists of around 350 firms, most of which have less than 10 employees. As far as the net goes, the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) registered some 621,000 users and 93,000 e-mail accounts back at the start of 2004 -- up on the previous year's 500,000 users. There are 12 ISPs in country, along with around 1600 Tunisian web sites. The government has great ambitions to exponentially expand all these statistics during 2005. The plan is to see around 2m extra net users by the end of 2005, implying a 10-fold increase in the rate of expansion. Given the Tunisian President's personal interest in this sector, a four-point plan outlined by various sector experts was approved, late in 2004, as a national strategy for future growth of IT sector. This called first for the development and modernization of the telecommunications infrastructure. Second was a call for the putting in place of the necessary organizational and regulatory platforms. In this the private sector should be favored, and a separation of powers take place between regulating government institutions and companies, researchers and developers. Next came the human resources angle, with attendees at the fair calling for a major restructuring of the educational and training facilities available to Tunisians in order that they might be better able to grasp the ever-accelerating pace of IT development. Lastly, came the importance of the international dimension -- of co-operating with global IT institutions and bringing Tunisia onto the worldwide IT map. Since 1996, and the 9th Development Plan, the country's universities have been trying to redeploy resources into the training of IT graduates, with around 800 people a year currently entering the sector from Tunisia's university IT departments. The government has also been trying to encourage computer ownership among Tunisian families, through discount computer purchase schemes. The target is to raise the current 3-5% of households that own a computer to 10% by the end of 2006. All this will undoubtedly be under the spotlight when Tunis hosts the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in late 2005.

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