United Nations Secretary-General today congratulated the Governments of Ghana and India for setting up the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in Information and Communications Technologies, saying he hoped it would help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor.

Mr. Annan said the partnership between Ghana and India over the centre "is also an especially vivid demonstration of South-South cooperation."

He added that information technologies have "tremendous potential to improve health, education and government, to promote trade and economic growth (and) to spread knowledge and integrate people and countries alike into the global knowledge economy."