EDITOR’S NOTE: In the case of Ethiopia, the Woyanne dictatorship is purposely impeding Information Technology development in the country by outlawing private sector ownership of Internet services. The state-run Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) that is the sole provider of Internet services in Ethiopia is led by an illiterate Woyanne cadre named DebreTsion GebreMikael who knows nothing about technology. His main assignment as head of the ETC is to hire Chinese engineers to jam short wave radio programs such as the VOA and block access to web sites such as EthiopianReview.com. As long as Africa continues to be ruled by World Bank-financed thugs like Woyannes, there will be no progress.

NAIROBI, KENYA – Africa’s lack of appreciation of the internet and web technology is a key impediment to the realization of e-commerce, delegates attending an e-commerce conference here said Monday. This is second to poor ICT infrastructure, blamed for the poor connectivity in the continent, currently standing at a mere 5.3 per cent for the 955 million Africans.

This has in turn worsened the ever widening digital divide even as countries suffer from the lack of proper online inventories of products for key sectors like a griculture and tourism.

E-commerce is also still illegal in most African countries that do not have proper legislation with the exception a handful of countries like South Africa, Rwanda and Egypt, the participants said.

The conference is the second in a series of four e-tourism conferences and train ing seminars organized by e-tourism Africa.

It drew students, tour operators and government players from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Seychelles and Ethiopia and follows a similar one held in Johannesburg in September 2008.

Kenya Tourism Minister Najib Balala, while opening the two-day event, lamented that it was a shame that Kenya’s legislative framework on e-commerce was not yet in place.

This is despite the fact that e-commerce was now the key economic driver of tourism sectors globally attracting more than Sh 110 billion (72 Kenya Shillings = US $ 1) in online revenues from the potential over 1 billion internet users.

“Online shopping is the world’s main activity with travel and destinations being the best selling commodity on the internet,” Said Damian Cook, Managing Directo re-tourism Africa.

“He revealed that up to 70 percent of all travellers admit to using the internet as their primary source of information, making the management of such information more important than just its provision.

The e-commerce framework is among issues addressed in the pending Kenya ICT Bill, which is awaiting second reading in Parliament.

The bill is needed to, among others, provide laws to regulate online transactions and electronic banking services critical to growth of key sectors like tourism .

“If all fails, we will consider petitioning the president to decree the law in order to hasten the passing of the bill and fast track the adoption of e-commerce in the country,” said the minister.

If need be, he added, the two ministries would push for a separate e-Transactions bill to hasten the process.

“Tourists can at the moment check our products and choose destinations online but we need to take this a step further by allowing price negotiations and booking right away,” he said.

The Tourism ministry, he said, was fast integrating new markets into the country’s promotion strategies to attract more arrivals.

“We are investing heavily in internet dynamics such as having our website available in a number of languages and making it linkable to local and international operators’ sites,” said Balala.

The country, he revealed, was now marketing to new source markets in Russia, the Middle East, India and China in a bid to beat competition from Asia and the Caribbean.

“We are also keen to increase our domestic potential such as South Africa where regional and domestic tourists number 7 million out of the 9 million arrivals annually.”

With a marketing budget of Sh 1.5 billion, Balala said the ministry had earmarked Sh 400 million in shoring up its traditional source markets in Europe such as United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.

“Some 500 million will also go to developing new markets in Russia, the Middle East, India and China with a similar amount being spent on France, Spain and Italy,” he said, adding that the ministr y was also in the process of re-classifying hotels in the country to address the waning standards in the sector, while seeking to create a tourist data pool with the ministry of immigration.

“We intend to install data collection IT tools at entry points to provide up to date information for future planning.”

Among other projects, he said, the government had purchased a two-acre plot of land at sh 45 million to relocate beach traders at the coast, alongside seeking investors to develop viable public beach market.