Mandriva and Angola today announce the signature of a broad technical
cooperation agreement.
Angola - a country with strong links with Portugal and Brazil - has
recently celebrated 5 years of peace after almost 30 years of civil
conflict. There are strong signs of a booming economy throughout the
country: Angola is one of the world fastest growing economies (+20.6%
in 2006) thanks to considerable natural resources, among which oil and
diamonds are the most significant, and to an active agricultural
sector. Angola is now looking to become an information society.
"We think that an intelligent use of Information Technologies will
help to achieve social justice and poverty reduction, due to the way
it facilitates the living of the citizens", says Pr. Pedro Teta,
Angolan Vice-Minister of Science and Technology.
Although Internet access is available in all 18 provinces of the
country, a lot remains to be done, due to the lack of
telecommunications infrastructure and training. The Angolan government
is currently installing fiber optics to bring telecommunication costs
down. Angola has a global program to teach first all civil servants
to use a computer, then all students.
Pr. Pedro Teta is also the coordinator of the National Commission for
Information Technologies (CNTI), whose role is to contribute to
reducing the digital divide in Angola both at the state level and in
the general population. CNTI has identified open source software as a
major strategic component in its efforts to build an information
society.
The benefits of open source software are:
* independence from software publishers;
* capacity to master technology;
* opportunity to develop a local ecosystem.
Mandriva and CNTI have signed an agreement by which Mandriva will
bring its knowledge and experience to Angola, providing technology
solutions, training and consulting services. Mandriva will be training
the first core team of open source specialists, it will help CNTI do
the first open source deployments and it will provide technology and
products and ensure their maintenance.
Mandriva will work in closed collaboration with a local partner,
Troy. A Mandriva Brazil team began its activities in the summer, with
plans to train 50 Angolan engineers. The first results of this program
will be communicated next November at the Angola IT Forum held by the
CNTI.
"The Angolan government drew up a strategic plan of development of
information technologies in order to standardize computing solutions
in institutions. It is also planning to train public servants. We
chose Mandriva to help us in this effort", says Pr. Pedro Teta.
"We are very proud to be involved in this initiative to bridge the
digital divide in Angola. This success validates our emerging markets
strategy. We look forward to making this a success for Angola and an
example for other African countries", adds Francois Bancilhon, CEO of
Mandriva.