Speech during the 12 th Esri Eastern Africa Users Conference at the Hyatt Regency, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania By Dr. Eng. Maria Sasabo(PhD), Permanent Secretary, for Communication Sector, Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, The United Republic of Tanzania Dear Chair Person, Dear Delegates, Ladies and gentlemen, Good morning! I am glad to be here as part of this great history in the making; the 12 th Esri Eastern Africa Users conference. I understand that the last one in our country was held in the year 2011 in Zanzibar. This conference has come at the very right time that we really need it. We are struggling with land management issues, settlement and slum upgrading, improvement of our infrastructure, security and safety issues, threats to our natural resources poachers, illegal logging, deforestation, demand for more food due to population increase, among others. I believe that this conference will come up with ways of helping us solve these challenges. 1
The Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications of the United Republic of Tanzania deals with 3 key sectors; works, transport and communications. Works sector is responsible for promoting a quality, efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective construction industry that facilitates the social and economic development of the country. Transport sector s primary responsibility is Transport Policy, Planning and Coordination functions as well as oversight of related Infrastructure delivery and asset management. As a PS for the Communication sector, we have a Mission to facilitate human capital development and knowledge generation for sustainable wealth creation and better livelihood of Tanzanians through policy development and promotion of technology and ICT. Our Vision is to have a knowledge based Tanzanian society with the capacity and capability to harness Technology and Innovation for the transformation of the economy that is sustainable and globally competitive. The roles of the Communication sector are policy formulation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Regulatory and legal matters pertaining to communication, ICT, Technology and Innovation. 2
Ladies and Gentlemen, Geographic Information System (GIS) is the technology that puts Geography into practice and makes it more visible. As we are all aware, Geography is that science of everything that occupies space and also a mother of many subjects related to earth surface. GIS starts from collecting or measuring anything or everything of the earth, both land and sea, store the data, analyze and finally visualize or communicate it for decision making. In communication, this is talking about laying the optic fiber cables, mapping all the communication masts, knowing where your vehicle is at any time, knowing physical address for individuals and activities to harness marketing and better service delivery. To the lands department, it involve mapping of all the parcels of land, the owners and activities on the same space. This helps us to understand, more we understand, the more we are able to come up with solutions to the current challenges and also predict how the future will be. 3
Ladies and Gentlemen A lot of advancements have taken place in the GIS industry in the last decade. Developments from use of main frame computers to PCs and now with tablets and smartphones. From storing data in magnetic tapes, floppy discs, PC hard discs, External discs, servers locally hosted to shared resources namely cloud computers. On the other hand, we currently talk of big data analytics and Cloud services, real time, Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones as commonly known) among others. All these technologies generate the most needed data for the development of our countries. The Government of Tanzania has provided an enabling environment and invested in various infrastructure with a view to promoting the use, advancement and integration of ICT. These include having a good policy, legal and regulatory framework. During the time of this conference, you had an opportunity to witness wide coverage of all media reporting of Tanzania being at the TOP on application of electronic financial 4
services transaction in the East African Countries. Thanks to the President, Hon. Dr. John Pombe Magufuli for providing the political will. Ladies and Gentlemen, Infrastructure of interest to this conference include; The national optic fibre broadband network with more than 25,000Km linking 80% of district headquarters in the country and connecting to international networks. Five internet exchange points (IXP) to optimize and increase efficiency of sharing data within the country. Plans are ongoing to interconnect IXP within East Africa Countries. The National Internet Data Centre ( The Cloud Computing Hub) which is the largest and best data centre for ICT and IT industry across East Africa. The National Internet Data Centre has a hightechnology infrastructure to host services from government and business, including telecoms companies, financial institutions, Research and development and Other applications. National Data Centre as a cloud computing hub offers many services at very affordable rates in order to accelerate economic 5
activities while transforming an entire society. These services are co-location, storage & back up services for secure reliable services at affordable rates. Virtual machines in form of dedicated servers, hosting services and cloud computing services (SaaS Software as a Service, PaaS Platform as a Service and IaaS Infrastructure as a Service) place the National Internet Data Centre as the heart tool of the country s ICT development. Dear Participants, Use this conference opportunity to learn and be aware of these available resources and plan to make use of them in particular for applications of GIS in our East African countries. Let me assure you that, the National Internet Data Centre is readily available as a plug and play CLOUD COMPUTING HUB for us in East Africa. Ladies and gentlemen, As you are all aware, We live in a world impacted by several issues, some positive and others negative. Positive challenges originate from innovation and advancement in technology, more so in the information Communication and Technology, Smarter and better decision making 6
tools, Cheaper infrastructure, and globalization among others. On the other hand, the world is still negatively challenged by droughts, famine, over population and urban sprawl, insecurity, floods, desertification, land degradation, refugee, among others. Merging the positive and negative challenge, we create an opportunity to address sustainable solutions. The solution could be anything, but I trust that Geospatial solution is core and a key to the solutions expected from this conference. This is because, the only science that dealt with WHERE is geospatial science and technology. To avoid preaching to the already converted, I believe that you, the conference participants, are the people with solutions to our world problems. Ladies and gentlemen Let me highlight some opportunities direct related with my ministry that can be supported by this technology. Talking of monitoring the project in real-time, allocating and tracking assets and people to different projects, mapping all roads with their status, surface cover, monitoring and evaluation of various communication channels and Innovation. This 7
makes us more committed to this technology for I doubt whether we can do without it we need it more. I am made aware that, Esri as a world leader in provision of geospatial solutions has developed ArcGIS software that helps us to easily discover, use, make and share maps from any devise, anytime and anywhere. Also that they have solution for various applications, right from the use of ArcINFO workstation to private or public cloud and GIS for everyone; field officers, managers, executives, operations, engineers and other non GIS users. It is our work as users therefore to take advantage of these developments and to spread the acceptance and utilization of GIS to all our colleagues and citizens. I also have been told that, Esri has programs for universities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). These are low hanging fruits that I wish we could all tap as quickly as possible. I am happy to partner with Esri through utilization of the National Internet Data Centre and I look forward for ESri tapping available opportunities for the betterment of our East Africa Countries. 8
I thank Esri Eastern Africa for having organized this year s conference and with a theme of Deep dive into the Science of Where. This conference is to help us understand how we can take full advantage of the Geospatial solutions that Esri has developed and provided for us. Irrespective of your profession, industry, gender and age, the Science of Where is for all of us to understand our world, effectively manage and automate our processes, facilitate our decision and policy making, analyses and visualize our data. So this conference gives us an opportunity to share with our colleagues what we have been doing to make the world a better place, learn from each other, be challenged by the technology of course make a step forward in utilizing what you learn, socialize and have fun I have been told we have several planned social activities. Do not forget to create time after the conference to tour Tanzania for great Africa food, sites, natural resource endowment, beaches, animals and many others. Ladies and gentlemen,. I would like to conclude by saying, Your being here is a great lifetime decision that you have made that will help us change how we view our world, how we do our work, make decision and how we interact with one 9
another. I urge you to take advantage of every moment you have here. At the end of it all, let s have value in all the investment that we do in this technology for a better world impacted positively by geospatial science and technology. Let me take this opportunity therefore, to declare this 12 th Esri Eastern Africa Users conference held here at the Hyatt Regency Hotel officially opened. Thank you very much, ASANTE. 10