CALENDAR.

• Position: Telecommunications industry - Calendar

* ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004

From May 4 to 8, 2004, telecoms sector leaders will gather in Cairo (Egypt) at the ITU TELECOM AFRICA 2004 in order to study the regions telecoms market and discuss issues crucial to market growth. AFRICA 2004 will include an exhibition at which participants from the entire region as well as world class companies such as Siemens, Alcatel, Vodafone, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Flag Telecom, Thuraya and Orascom Telecom will demonstrate a broad range of products and services showcasing the type of solutions available for deploying information and communication technologies across the whole of Africa.

The African telecoms market experienced rapid growth in several essential areas and the emergence of independent regulatory bodies allows for a more favourable environment for competition. Growth prospects in part of the sector are certainly very promising but difficulties remain. At Forum AFRICA 2004, private sector leaders, government representatives, regulators and financial operators will exchange views on the major issues in the region: successful trade models, new infrastructure solutions, the impact of market liberalisation, investment strategies, management of internet resources in an African context, appropriate technologies for countries in the region, etc.

The Forum is the first big ITU event since the first phase of the World Summit on Information Society and, according to ITU, promises to be an important event for the African region.

For the Forum programme: http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2004/forum/programme_preview-fr.html

* Cross-border Information Society

A two day conference on cross-border cooperation between regional authorities on information society will take place in Stockholm, Sweden on April 26 and 27. The conference will measure progress made by the information society and set common targets concerning cross-border and inter-regional cooperation. The first day will focus on the viability of the information economy and the means to measure and to follow the progress of knowledge regions in Europe and the second day will focus on regional-level planning of the economy of the Baltic Sea region.

Information: http://www.balticpalette.com; or E-mail: jan-henrik.Johansson@uudenmaanliitto.fi

* 20th TII Conference: New Markets, Technologies and Partnerships for an Enlarged Europe

The European Association for transfer of technologies, innovation and industrial innovation...