As a follow up to the visit by H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda to Rwanda in July, 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on July 29th 2011, under the umbrella of the 7th session of Joint Permanent Commission on cooperation between the two countries with regard to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
Subsequently, a delegation from the Republic of Rwanda led by the Minister in the President’s Office in Charge of Information and Communications Technology Hon. Ignace Gatare made a follow up visit to Uganda on 16th – 17th November, 2011, at the invitation of the Minister of ICT, Hon. Ruhakana Rugunda. The objective of the visit was to discuss and share experiences with regard to areas of cooperation as elaborated in the MoU on ICT sector, and lay ground for implementation.
During the discussion, the following areas were covered: Telecommunications, Information Technology, Broadcasting, Postal Services and Human Resource. The details are hereunder elaborated.
The National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) will be leading of the areas of fiber connectivity and information technology.
In the final communique given by the two ministers the following were agreed:
It was recognized that some of the Telecommunication operators already have cross border fiber links. However, the quality of services of these links is inadequate. Therefore, there is need for the two countries to have a more reliable connectivity.
i. In the short term, a task force shall be established to monitor availability of current links that are provided by the private operators between Kampala and Katuna, as a measure of improving the reliability of this route.
ii. As a long term measure, it has been agreed that connectivity between the two National backbones be established by December 2012.
iii. In order to ensure adequate redundancy on international connectivity, the two countries will work together to secure satellite bandwidth.
And to increase reliability of international connectivity for the region, the countries will use the alternative route through South Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti to have access to other international submarine cables. This will be fast-tracked through the Nile Basin initiative.
The countries also agreed to put in place measures to ensure that the regional internet traffic between the two countries is routed through the most efficient route, preferably through the fiber linkage, by June 2012.
The countries also agreed to cooperate and share experience and expertise in the establishment of their respective Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), and will also ensure that the CERTs share information. Other areas of cooperation were the ID project, public ICT access points, capacity building and BPO.
A joint technical team responsible for the implementation and progress reporting of the agreed areas will be established by the respective Permanent Secretaries within two weeks from the date of signing the joint communique.
Joint communique signed after the visit
