Delegates from international IT companies will advise the government on how best to resolve a skills crisis that is jeopardising SA\u2019s ability to meet its economic growth target of 6% a year.<\/p>\n
SA\u2019s high commissioner in India, Francis Moloi, recently quantified the shortage, saying SA had an estimated 60000 IT jobs to fill and warning that the workforce was insufficiently trained to support the government\u2019s economic growth target.<\/p>\n
The government was tackling the skills shortage by designing a two- to three-year development programme, the communications department said in a statement ahead of the meeting.<\/p>\n
This will be the seventh time the hi-tech advisory council has convened for international experts to guide the president on how technology and telecommunications can improve the country\u2019s economic and social development. The events have had a mixed reaction from industry participants, with their enthusiasm cooling as they see that their annual advice is frequently not put into action.<\/p>\n
As a result, the hierarchy of international participants has waned, with most companies now sending a regional director rather than the original top tier of CEOs and presidents that the government hoped to draw.<\/p>\n
Shuttleworth has, however, remained one of the few stalwarts and influential entrepreneurs, making time to attend every year.<\/p>\n
This year the meeting will be held in KwaZulu-Natal from Friday to Sunday. So far the delegates include regional executives from Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and HP and Esther Dyson, chairwoman of EDventure Holdings.<\/p>\n
Last year the advisory council discussed skills development, the structure of the telecoms market in SA and the migration from analogue to digital television broadcasting.<\/p>\n
The delegates said that SA had a dynamic telecoms market with some world-class mobile technologies, but they urged the government to encourage competition for broadband services to make telecoms more widespread and affordable for the masses.<\/p>\n
But it is not all gloom as some municipalities such as Johannesburg have been planning a Jo\u2019burg broadband network project to cut its telecoms costs and improve services from traffic control to libraries. Free public internet zones could be created. Spare network capacity may be sold to residents for cheaper phone calls and fast internet access.<\/p>\n