The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
GOVERNMENT is set to launch an Artificial Intelligence policy soon, with consultation and formulation works now at an advanced stage, the Deputy Minister of Information Communications Technology, Postal and Courier Services Dingumuzi Phuthi has revealed.
Speaking during a Digital Economy Conference held on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) on Wednesday, Deputy Minister Phuthi said the AI policy is part of the broader regulatory frameworks that the Government, in consultation with stakeholders, is working on to enhance the migration of the country towards a digital economy.
Held under the theme ‘Connect, Innovate, Prosper: Embracing the digital economy’ the conference drew various stakeholders from the country’s telecommunication companies.
Deputy Minister Phuthi said as Government, they appreciate that the nation has the digital economy on the backdrop of a much loud talk on the issue of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is working on a policy that will be launched soon.
“AI is as adverted as breathing today because it is catching up fast. It is imperative on every nation worth its salt to be able to embrace the concept of AI so that we are not left behind. AI is not as new as people may think but human beings have been in denial to appreciate that there is AI before us.
“With that as it may, I am very pleased that the Government is working on an AI policy driven by my ministry. So far we have engaged on a consultative approach of civil society and other players to be able to bring together ideas on what that policy should entail. I am happy to say it will be launched as soon as possible because the stage at which we are is quite advanced,” said Deputy Minister Phuthi.
Turning to the digital economy, Deputy Minister Phuthi said the nation has migrated towards this phenomenon although not as speedy as expected. He said the nation has been able to embrace the digital economy pretty much due to efficiency in Governance which led to the NDS1 which identified the digital economy as an important pillar for development.
“Since identifying the digital economy as a key pillar in the NSD1, we then came up with various policies which the President launched a few months ago and gave direction towards which the nation should migrate in terms of this space and sector.
“I also want to underscore the importance of regulatory frameworks that have been discussed that point out to the need of the country to converge on the regulatory approach from the ICT and broadcasting, collapse them into one so that we feed into the global rating that is recommended by the International Telecommunications Union. The country has been left a little bit behind its peers because of that slow approach in terms of converging the two to make the regulatory frame work and approach embrace both the broadcasting as well as the telecoms,” said Deputy Minister Phuthi.
@nyeve14
