Sudan, Malaysia to sign accord on technology cooperation
Nov 22, 2005 (KUALA LUMPUR) — Sudan will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia to establish cooperation in various fields of technology, its Minister of Information and Communications, Al Zhawi Ibrahim Malik, said Tuesday.
“We are looking forward to Malaysia helping us in various fields of technology,” he told Bernama in an interview here.
Currently, Al Zhawi said, Sudan already had very close relations with Malaysia in the communications and information field.
“We are going to sign the MoU in the near future with Malaysia to see what fields we can cooperate in, particularly in training and technical know-how,” he said, adding that he had met his Malaysian counterpart to convey his country’s intention.
Al Zhawi is here to attend the Sixth Conference of the Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries (Cominac VI) which ends at the Palace of the Golden Horses hotel Tuesday.
More than 70 of the 114 member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) are attending the conference to deliberate on a host of issues, among them the Malaysia-mooted NAM News Network (NNN).
On the development of information communication technology (ICT) in his country, Al Zhawi said Sudan was in the midst of improving its capacity in the field to bridge the communication gap among its population.
He said Sudan had been affected by sectarian conflict for 40 years after its independence from the British in 1956, due to lack of communication.
“The British during their colonial days had separated Sudan into two parts, namely the North and the South, and the lack of communication had been instrumental in creating the big gap between both sides” he said.
“But now we have been able to overcome such a situation, but more needs to be done to further bridge the communication gap, especially in the southern part of Sudan as well as other remote parts of the country,” he said.
As such, the Sudanese government had to work very hard to overcome the communication and digital divide among its people.
“We are now embarking on the ICT programmes to help them and ensure that we have enough funding to enable our people to have all the knowledge and technological know-how.
“We have supplied a lot of computers to the schools and for the people in major towns and cities as well as in the remote areas of Sudan,” he said.
On Cominac VI, Al Zhawi said: “A gathering like this will help a lot as it will also be a venue for us to discuss other matters outside the agenda of the meeting.
(AsiaPulse/ST)