CAPACITY BUILDING ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES 2017

Malawi through  the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) participated int the 2017 Seminar on”Capacity Building on Information and Communication for African Countries” in Beijing China.  The Seminar was held at Academy for International Business Offices from the 6^th  September to 26^th September 2017. Zacheous Kantchowa;  an  ICT Officer from NCST represented Malawi at the  seminar which was  designed for Information and Communication Experts and other Government Officials who in one way or another are responsible with information generation, use ,storage, processing and dissemination.

Participants were drawn from ten African countries namely: Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, The Gambia, Seychelles, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda and it had over 31 participants who were awarded with certificates at the end of the Seminar.

The Seminar was designed to:

• To provide insight and understanding regarding key concepts on Information and Communication.
• Review and discuss the various  ways in which ICT has benefited the Chinese nationals and how best their government is tapping into it
• Discuss practical steps and ways in which  African countries can adopt ICTto their advantage
• Appreciation of Chinese culture.

 Participants got to learn through materials prepared using the following methodologies  Lectures, Videos, discussions  and business trips and  some of the topics discussed learnt included the following

•   Initiative Connotation Interpretation of The BELT AND Road
• China Broadband Project
•   China’s Communication Industry Development Plan.

As for the business trips, the participants visited Huawei, Didi Infinite  Technology Development Company,China Railway 4 Bureaus Group Companies in the  Shenzhen and Heifer Provinces in order to  have a clear insight  of companies operations and companies.

 Participants had also the opportunity to have an appreciation of the Chinese culture through visits to historical places Such as the Great Wall; Anhui Provincial Museum;  Bird’s Nest Stadium where the 2008 Olympics games were held and also through food and dance.