The Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, in charge of New Technologies, Mognana Sow Mohamed Deyna, firmly believes that the innovative financing mechanism proposed by the DSF will give a strong impetus to the development of ICTs

Mauritania could be the third North African nation to join the DSF. What is the reason for this interest?

ICTs play a crucial role in countries’ social and economic development. To take full advantage of this, the Mauritanian Government is firmly committed to mastering ICTs. Within this context, our country is striving to promote and develop the use of computing and technologies in government, the private sector and civil society. The ultimate goal is to establish a positive position for Mauritania in the global information society in order to harness the benefits of the ICT revolution and the globalisation phenomenon, facilitate access to knowledge, fight poverty and overcome the «digital divide». This last goal can only be achieved globally and collectively, which is why digital solidarity is so important at both the regional and international levels.

Can lack of access contribute to permanently marginalising poorer countries in the new information society?

The gap between industrialised countries and developing countries is ever increasing. This gap is most apparent in terms of access to ICTs, which has a social, economic and cultural knock-on effect. African countries are suffering from a new form of exclusion due to limited, or even inexistent access. However, this marginalisation could be corrected by reducing the digital divide through the democratisation of Internet access. To achieve that, countries must focus their work on three areas: developing content, transporting content and accessing that content.

If Mauritania, as other African States, introduce the «1% digital solidarity» principle, do you think that the commitment of African countries will be followed by industrialised nations?

I sincerely hope so, as it is a technically feasible and financially viable concept. The «1% digital solidarity» initiative will boost global demand, which will in itself be to the advantage of all the stakeholders (public sector, private sector, civil society), and will in no way compromise their benefits.

Mauritania has decided to organise, end of October, a ministerial gathering of the «5+5». It hopes to make these ten Mediterranean countries the force behind an international drive to reduce the digital divide. What exactly do you expect from this?

One of the aims of the conference is to form a group of leading states (the Mediterranean states) to support this project, the seeds of which came from the African Union and the NEPAD. The idea behind the meeting of the «5+5» group is to establish an initial bridge between Africa and Europe. The objective of the Nouakchott Conference is to create a group of leading states with a view to adopting the «1% digital solidarity » principle, and calling other states to support this measure, as well as establish an action plan to fight the digital divide in the Mediterranean Arc and generate financial support to reduce this divide.