The Zimbabwe Information and Communication Technologies (ZICT) has requested for 200 hectares of land from the government to construct a local version of Silicon Valley.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Silicon Valley is an innovation techno hub based in the state of California in the United States. The word “silicon” originally referred to the large number of
silicon chip innovators and manufacturers in the region, and is now home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations and thousands of start-up companies.
The proposal was handed to the ministry of Local Government, Urban and Rural Development on Monday, requesting for the piece of land in the Mount Hampden area outside the capital, Harare.
ZICT chairperson, Jacob Mutisi told NewsDay yesterday that, the idea of the techno hub would be a true reflection of the country building a modern city, as it would show technology to be right in the middle.
Construction of the innovation techno hub would depend on architectural design, but that an initial investment of $800 000 was needed, Mutisi said.
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He said ZICT wanted the ICT sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product to be at least 50%.
“It will be the place to find solutions in ICT to our national problems, such as developing our own equivalent of Microsoft in our vernacular language and building our own mobile devices. You are aware that Google is training one million ICT professionals. What for? These are people that will fill up the ‘missing’ vacuum when someone graduates looks for a job yet they have the skills to get their very own income by developing an ICT solution,” he said.
“For start-ups (tech), they will always be supported by the experts who will be in this hub. It is happening worldwide and we want it here. Do they know where to start? No, they will be assisted by experts at the hub.”
In the proposal, ZICT will use the private-public-partnership model for the development of this innovation techno-hub. This model would be based on a co-operative arrangement between one or more public and private sector partners for the long-term.
The model would be key in seeking out investment for the techno hub as the collaborative agreements would centre on human capital, research and development (R and D), and infrastructure, among other things.
“ZICT, therefore, proposes a collaborative public-private-partnership in promoting investments in human capital and R and D through the science, technology, engineering and mathematics educational institutions, and infrastructure input pillars through ICT innovation techno-hubs,” the proposal read.
Zimbabwe was ranked 133 out of 145 countries on the Global Innovation Index (GII) in 2015.
The GII ranking is based off five input pillars which enable innovation activities, namely, institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication.
Calls for the hub come at a time when the ICT, Postal and Courier Services ministry found every 10% growth in the ICT sector could add 1,5% contribution to gross domestic product.
