Linking Africa and India - new media

PERSPECTIVEEurope does, that European company will becomemore competitive. So in the longer term, outsourcinghas to be done. There is no alternative. The problemhas to be managed and there are no two opinionsabout it. But what has happened is not changeable. Itis an irreversible process. Blocking outsourcing isakin to India's old regime of controls which blockedthings artificially.The same vulnerability you can see in America. Thereaction in the US is very similar and the philosophyis no different. Every change moves in a helix. Itmoves back and forward. Therefore, something thatyou see as the backlash is also part of the helix. It isbound to go back a little. All this H1B is basically abacklash. And it is very natural to a change. No changegoes through straight. The Internet came, went downtotally, and is spurting again. That's how changehappens. When change takes place it affects a lot ofpeople. As professionals, we should not be worryingtoo much about it. We should know how to manage,how not to add fuel to the fire, to lie low, to putinfluence, put forth our point of view, educate people,and tell them as to what can happen if they don'toutsource.We should have keynote speakers who should allaythese fears, but not aggressively. If someone pushes achange in a day, which actually takes three years …well, those are the guys who are called terrorists. Let'snot try and make the change in one day, so that all jobsland here tomorrow... It is neither feasible nor is itpossible. It is not the right way of doing things. It mustbe allowed to take its course.Some rational data should be presented to the criticsof outsourcing. What is it that you are talking about? Isit emotional or factual? And once you tell them it isemotional rather than factual and that it is hardlyaffecting the jobs and is a negligible percentage of thewhole business, the situation will change. We mustask them, then why are you shouting so much? Thenthe public generally starts taking it in properperspective.But right now, what is news? Change is news. The jobgoing away is news but the job remaining there is not.The 0.1 to 0.5 per cent that is affected is news. Theadverse media publicity cannot be stopped. A mediacampaign has to be designed to counter it, if required,by the slots on TV channels. Put forth your point ofview so that the masses are also aware of the realsituation.Mauritius to host AfricanCyber Summit ACT 2004 in Sept.This year's African Computing and TelecommunicationsSummit, ACT 2004, is to be held at the Mauritius CyberTower from September 7 to 9.ACT 2004 will focus on the theme "building partnershipsto mainstream Africa's ICT sector". It will feature a numberof forums, including one on business process outsourcing(BPO), which is particularly important for Mauritius, as thegovernment hopes to develop the island as a BPOdestination.The island nation will host the event at its new CyberTower, which has been designed to provide BPO facilitiesand forms a key element of the Mauritian BPO strategy.Other specialised forums at ACT 2004 include the AfricanTelecom Operators Forum, the African Open SourceForum, a Forum on GSM Applications for Development,and the African eGovernment Forum.The African ISP Association (AfrISPA) will hold its annualgeneral meeting at the event, and according to MauritiusISP Association chairman, Viv Padyatchy, it is hoped thatall ISP associations across Africa will send at least onerepresentative to the meeting.Sean Moroney, group chairman of event organiser AITECAfrica, says ACT 2004 is gaining momentum as a truepartnership event."ACT 2004 has a wide range of private sector,government and developmental organisations supportingit as a platform to share knowledge and experience acrosssectors and countries, to develop partnerships, and toseek best practice solutions to drive forward the rapid rolloutof computing and communications developmentacross the continent."Moroney says that among the organisations supportingthe forum are the UN Economic Commission for Africa,the Global VSAT Forum, the Free and Open SourceFoundation for Africa, the Canadian Government'sConnectivity Africa Programme, and the InternationalFederation for Information Processing.Issues that will be raised at the forum include: ICT forpublic sector modernisation in developing countries,entrepreneurship as the bedrock for Africa's expandingICT sector, ingredients for successful partnerships inAfrica, and the impact of new economy business modelson traditional business practices.On the telecommunications side of the forum, discussionswill focus on telecommunication monopolies beingincompatible with the rapid roll-out of the Internet,surviving regulatory uncertainty in a tough telecomsmarket, VSAT technologies to bridge the digital divide,and rolling out end-to-end VOIP networks in Africa.INDO-AFRICAN BUSINESS 39August-October 2004