By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
Côte d’Ivoire has called for
a stronger China-Africa partnership in which African countries move beyond
being consumers of emerging technologies to become active participants in their
design, development and deployment.
The call was made by Désiré
Aka, Director of Personal Data Protection at Côte d’Ivoire’s Telecommunications
and ICT Regulatory Authority (ARTCI), during the 20th International Forum on
Trade in Services.
Aka said Africa’s ambition
should be to play a greater role in shaping the technologies that will define
the future, rather than remaining primarily a market for solutions developed
elsewhere.
For Côte d’Ivoire, he said,
this ambition rests on two key pillars: innovation to accelerate digital
transformation and trust to ensure that the transformation is sustainable.
The discussions highlighted
the importance of developing digital technologies and services that reflect
African needs, operating environments and social realities.
Aka stressed that the
objective should be to move beyond a traditional technology-transfer model
towards the co-construction of digital solutions adapted to African realities.
Such an approach would
require greater collaboration between African and Chinese technology
stakeholders, as well as stronger investment in innovation, skills, digital
infrastructure and institutional capacity.
