Director General of the Centre des Technologies de Information (CTI), Canton of Geneva, Mr. Jean Marie Leclerc in the country as part of a three member delegation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, made this offer to an information and communications technologies (ICT) stakeholders meeting in Maseru on February 23.

The CTI Director General, responsible for science and technology in the state of Canton, in Geneva, said the computers should not be distributed amongst offices in urban areas but be part of a project to diffuse the information and communications technologies country-wide. They could even be given to schools to start up ICT awareness projects, he said.

He urged national policy makers to address the question of the digital divide, which he said is characterized by highly unequal access to and use of ICT, and manifests itself both at the international and domestic levels.

The adoption of ICT requires the implementation of sustainable measures to improve access to the Internet and telecommunications and increase IT literacy, as well as the development of local Internet content, he said.

24 February 2005