MAJOR COMPONENT OF GROWTH
Professor Juma, the director of the Science, Technology and Globalisation Project at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, said ICT can be a major component of the growth engine of an economy and has a direct influence on efforts to upgrade quality of life through better information flow and communications.
"Economic development can generally be viewed as the continuous transformation of knowledge into goods and services," he said. "It can be deduced from this that information is the currency of economic transformation. It is in this context that ICT acquire its significance."
He, however, cautioned against a heavy focus on ICT in a narrow sectoral or technical way, suggesting instead that it should be viewed as a generic platform that underlies all economic activities and transactions rather than a sector in competition with other economic initiatives.
Turning to education and the impact of ICT, Mr. Juma said that in order to build science, technology and innovation capabilities, more resources should be devoted to assisting young people, in particular women, receive higher education.
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