Hearing the news that Afghanistan will be participating in CeBIT, regarded throughout the world as the largest and most influential marketplace for ICT, is probably the best thing I have heard about Afghanistan in the past few months.
Afghanistan’s political situation is making so much news that it sometimes overshadows all the other progress the post-conflict nation makes. Progress in the technology sector is directly proportional to the progress of the nation. It plays a vital role in gaining prosperity, creating job opportunities and will enable Afghanistan to become a more self-reliant state.
According to Omar Mansoor Ansari, President of National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA), “Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries; however, its growth in the ICT sector is remarkable. We have had the highest ICT growth level in the region, just with the few years of tapping into the information communications technology; this, indeed, is fabulous, and we need to tell these good stories to the world.”
The CeBIT exhibition attracts participants, buyers and sellers from 100 countries who gather in Hanover, Germany each spring to discover and promote the latest trends of the digital age.NICTAA believes the event will provide Afghan participants the opportunity to reach a large international audience of qualified professionals and that they will make valuable new contacts and pave the way for lasting business relationships in the future. CeBIT will also be a good place to identify new market trends, offering the attendees exposure to valuable new ideas that will inspire future work.
Four leading software development and IT companies from Afghanistan will attend the trade fair scheduled for March 4-9: Xala Technologies, NETLINKS, Paiwastoon Networking Services and Trend Com. Their participation is organized by the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) and sponsored by USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) project.
Bryan Rhodes, Chief of Party for USAID/ASMED, says the project is pleased to support the development of Afghanistan’s ICT sector. He went on to say that “ASMED is sponsoring the participation of NICTAA, one of our key Afghan business associations and a USAID partner, because we believe the event will offer a great business opportunity for Afghan businesses.”
NICTAA is an umbrella association of the ICT sector and a key visionary in the country. It promotes ICT as a sector, a tool and an enabler to support economic growth, trade, e-commerce, education, civic education, democracy, human rights, business ethics and free market principles in Afghanistan.
Let us hope the potential of Afghanistan to become as a trade center for Asia will be noticed by the international investors.
