ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2001 will be staged at the Gallagher Estate in Midrand, near Johannesburg, South Africa, from 12 to 16 November 2001, and will be hosted by the Government of the Republic of South Africa. The event follows the hugely successful AFRICA TELECOM 98 event, which was also held in South Africa.

AFRICA 2001 will be the next step in the African Renaissance, and aims to help bridge the Digital Divide. There is still an enormous amount of work that must be done to bring Africa up to the levels of the industrialized world. In 2000, Africa - which is home to one in 8 of the world's people - had in just one in 50 of the world's fixed line subscribers, one in 60 of the world's mobile cellular subscribers, one in 70 of the worlds' personal computers and only 1% of the worlds' Internet users. There are nevertheless strong grounds for optimism. Many countries in the region are on the road to sectoral reform and foreign investment is now being actively encouraged across the continent as privatization and liberalization are progressively introduced. Also encouraging is that mobile cellular subscribers now outnumber fixed-line subscribers in a number of African countries - and by the time AFRICA 2001 takes place, the trend will be widespread. Internet uptake in many countries in Africa is on the rise too, and there is great potential in Africa for technology leapfrogging.

Be part of the AFRICA 2001 show, the best opportunity this year to showcase your products and services to the region's decision makers.