The Sixth Annual African Computing
& Telecommunications Summit

Mauritius , 7-9 September, 2004

"Building Partnerships to Mainstream Africa's ICT Sector"

AITEC has been invited by the Act ICT Industry Alliance of Mauritius to hold the sixth annual ACT Summit in Mauritius due to the attendance it will attract from ICT professionals and managers from throughout Africa, as well as other international participation, thus promoting the country’s position as a supplier of ICT services and expertise.

The theme of the Summit will be “Developing Partnerships to Mainstream Africa’s ICT Industry.”

Welcoming AITEC’s decision to hold the Summit in Maurtius, Colin Taylor, Chairman of the Act ICT Industry Alliance, called on industry counterparts across Africa to use the Summit as an opportunity to pool knowledge and experience to promote the continent on the international stage. “Although some of us may land up competing for the same outsourcing work, the potential market is huge and expanding. We will all benefit from increased skills levels across the region, as well as improved perceptions of the continent’s ICT capacity. I’m confident that companies attending ACT 2004 will find that co-operation and alliances, rather than competition, will be the order of the day.”

The following will be the key streams within the Summit:

Business Process Outsourcing Forum
The African Open Source Forum, in association with the Free & Open Source Software Foundation for Africa
eGovernment Forum in association with the UN Economic Commission for Africa
Telecommunication Operators Forum in association with the Global VSAT Forum and the UK Government’s CATIA Programme
Mobile Telephony Applications for Development, in association with the Canadian Government’s Connectivity Africa Programme.
The ACT Summit has been held in the UK, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria in previous years. Over 2,000 African ICT professionals, managers, resellers, innovators and policy-makers have benefited from the Summit’s intensive knowledge-sharing platform.

The ACT Partnering Hub
All delegates will have use of the free service provided by the Partnering Hub to arrange meetings with potential clients, partners and suppliers. All Summit participants will be asked to provide their local mobile numbers for ease of communication and to arrange meetings. The Partnering Hub will act as a vital meeting place where delegates can make maximum use of the networking opportunities provided by ACT.

The ACT Exhibition
The Summit will include a high-quality business-to-business exhibition, enabling local and international ICT manufacturers, suppliers, service providers and operators to promote their products and services to the ACT participants, most of whom are high-volume purchasers. In addition to the exhibition stands, syndicate rooms are available to rent as display, meeting and hospitality areas for the duration of the event. As at all its exhibitions, AITEC will provide free exhibition space for NGOs, non-profit development agencies and other non-profit organizations involved in ICT for development to network and attract partners and supporters.

For further details of ACT 2004, contact:
IN MAURITIUS: Geraldine d'Unienville, Publi-Promo Tel 259-3630; geraldine@aitecafrica.com
INTERNATIONAL: Sean Moroney, AITEC Africa, Tel: +44-1480-495595 sean@aitecafrica.com