Accra, March 5, GNA - Government in 2008 sold 11,000 units of Personal Computers under the Government Assisted PC Programme (GAPP) to the public, private, educational institutions and individuals. Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Finance Minister, who announced this in the 2009
budget statement to parliament, said the objective was to increase the use and acquisition of personal computers at affordable prices in the country and also to grow the local PC assembling industry. The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with Intel Corporation.
Dr Duffuor said to create an effective ICT enabling environment, 2008 saw the passage of four bills, namely the e-Transactions, the e-Communications, National Communications Authority (NCA) and National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Bills.
He gave the assurance that effort would be made to combat social exclusion of the disabled and physically challenged persons and promote the deployment of ICT to enhance their social, educational and employment opportunities.
"The special needs of the disabled people will be specifically taken care of, including the offering of facilities to promote the acquisition of computer and internet skills.
"The development of Braille facilities for the visually impaired will be supported," he said.
This year, he said, government in collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service (OHCS) would pursue the development of a scheme of service for Information Technology and Information Management personnel. "This will enable qualified IT/IM personnel to be attracted into the public service," Dr. Duffuor said.
He said the proposed Technology Park would be developed under Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (MSME) project to complement efforts to create the environment for jobs in the area of ICT/ITES business initiatives.
Government, he said, would support the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMA) to continue with its provision of seasonal forecast and reliable information for weather sensitive sectors of the economy.
"The agency will be supported to get the needed equipment to enhance its service delivery."
On the Pan-Africa E-Network Project, Dr Duffuor said government would continue to promote e-education, e-health as well as help provide secured network for member states of the African Union (AU).