The government will soon start building a Silicon Valley Environment to enhance education and information technology, the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Professor Makame Mbarawa, has said.

Science and Technology minister Prof. Makame Mbarawa

Prof Mbarawa said this in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday when signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IBM Corporation.

“The MoU signed today is aimed at working together with the IBM Corporation to realise the government’s vision of building the Silicon Valley Environment,” he said.

Prof Mbarawa said the initiative to establish the partnership with IBM Corporation on the project follows the state visit by
President Jakaya Kikwete to the USA that was made in September, 2007.

“The process has taken a bit long but it was an inevitable  step – the goal was to create a shared vision and understanding among the stakeholders and create ownership to get a guarantee of successful implementation of agreed activities,” he noted.

The project to be implemented around the University of Dodoma would enable the growth of entrepreneurship, help achieve the government’s vision of making the operations of Dar es Salaam Port to become efficient and a cornerstone for regional commercial infrastructure.

Other objectives, according to Prof Mbarawa are to help in building research capabilities of Nelson Mandela Arusha Institute of
Technology, promote implementation of Tanzania Education and Research Network and building exploiting Cyber Park and support implementation of e-government initiatives in the country.

The Minister urged stakeholders to take the initiative seriously to achieve the goals and objectives of applying and deploying potentials of ICT in fostering Tanzania Socio Economic development.

On the other hand, the Vice President of IBM Corporation Dr Mark Dean thanked the president for his visit and co-operation and promised to work together with the government to realise the benefits of the cooperation and the project.

By ANNE ROBI, Tanzania Daily News