<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Dear Dr Ndemo,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thank you for your kind clarification on steps taken by Kenya on assembled electronics in Kenya.</DIV>
<DIV>I am a strong bealiver in local industries and happy to let you know I have bought twenty Madaraka PCs from JKUAT Enterprises for our Tracom college teaching lab. They however need to develop local materials for the industry as oppossed to assembly only. Anyone can do that.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Gilgil Telecommucations Industry should be nurtured and it is a pity what you have explained on someone turning it to posts treatment. What a shame and waste of developing industrial capacity! May the good Loard see the case to logical conclusion.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I fully agree with you that the private sector and the academia must wake-up and create the necessary industries and hence wealth.</DIV>
<DIV>Once again thank you.</DIV>
<DIV>Dan Njiriri<BR><BR>--- On <B>Mon, 9/8/08, bitange@jambo.co.ke <I><bitange@jambo.co.ke></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid">From: bitange@jambo.co.ke <bitange@jambo.co.ke><BR>Subject: Re: [kictanet] Rwanda Gets Localls Made/Assemled Handset<BR>To: njiris2000@yahoo.com<BR>Cc: bitange@jambo.co.ke, "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>, "Robert Onyango-Alai" <alai.robert@gmail.com><BR>Date: Monday, September 8, 2008, 7:24 AM<BR><BR><PRE>Dear Njiriri,
There is nothing wrong with policy and we should not benchmark Kenya with
Rwanda because the differences between the two countries are just too
many. Compared to Kenya, Rwanda is where Kenya was in the 80's, centrally
planned economy where the Government interferes with everything including
the private sector. Granted there is virtually no private sector in
Rwanda. We have spent most of the 90's privatizing that which was created
by Government. The economy and more specifically the communication sector
is fully liberalised. The opportunities for the private sector are
therefore enormous and we should not blame the Government.
It is in this forum that we recently discussed Madaraka PC and it was
dismissed as unworkable. We did not bother to ask especially JKUAT where
they have reached in developing components locally for the PC. Kenya has
been in the forefront producing telephone equipment including switches at
the Gilgil plant for the region. Indeed we have several firms seeking to
start local production of mobile handsets at the facility but have been
frustrated by a nother Kenyan who wanted to manufacture poles at the plant
(The perils of Democracy). The case is still in court that we cannot
discuss it here.
We must be proud of our human resources for what they have done in the
region. What we need to do now is to vigorously utilize this resources to
exploit the opportunities - this if Adam Smith was a life will tell you
that - let the private sector wake up. This is the pattern that the Newly
Industrialized Nations of Asia followed. The Indians are going home from
many countries to create real wealth.
Regards
Ndemo.
> Thanks Dr Ochuodho for sharing this new development in Rwanda.
> Unfortunately, Kenya is once again beaten at our own game, not becaurse we
> lack, excellent technical manpower and facilities.., but becaurse we are
> too slow in policy development! Rwanda has carried the day, yet all the
> production parts pass through Kenya to Rwanda!
> We should learn to be fast in what we want to achieve, and not take years
> back and forth in board rooms.
> Dan Njiriri
>
> --- On Sat, 9/6/08, Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> From: Shem Ochuodho <shemochuodho@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [kictanet] Rwanda Gets Localls Made/Assemled Handset
> To: njiris2000@yahoo.com
> Cc: "Robert Onyango-Alai" <alai.robert@gmail.com>,
"KICTAnet ICT Policy
> Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008, 6:08 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Quoting: Rwanda ICT4D Community Network
>
> Rwanda get locally made handset -Network World 02/09/2008
>
> A-Link Technologies, a Chinese electronics company, has unveiled its first
> mobile phone handsets manufactured in Rwanda. This makes Rwanda the first
> country in the region to sell locally manufactured mobile phones.
>
> The manufacturing of the handsets follows a memorandum of understanding
> signed in 2006 between A-Link and the Rwanda Information Technology
> Authority, the country's telecom regulator.
> Read the latest WhitePaper - Monitor the core and troubleshoot the access
> layer with integrated network analysis solutions
>
> The company plans to start selling the phones, called "Alira,"
in the 21
> countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African after they
> are officially launched in October and once production is stepped up, said
> A-Link CEO Yin Quing Ri.
>
> "One of the phone models has been programmed with Kinyarwanda
software so
> the Rwandese who uses their mother language can communicate easily,"
Ri
> said.
>
> So far, the company has produced three models -- the A100, A200 and A300
> -- and promises that several other models are in the works.
>
> The phones feature color screens and radios, among other amenities.
>
> The plant is manufacturing 100 handsets per day, though it has the
> capacity to produce 700 phones per day.
>
> A-Link began operating in Rwanda last year, as the country is positioning
> itself to be an ICT hub in East Africa.
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</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>