• ECA: Africa "must become key player" in information society

The fifth Committee on Development Information (CODI-V) ended its weeklong meeting here on Friday with a call on African governments to urgently create jobs in the information and knowledge society. A final report, adopted by participants at the meeting, noted that information and knowledge had emerged as fundamental economic resources and a factor of global competitiveness. "Lack of access to, and utilization of, information and knowledge are in this context, a source of poverty," the report said. "The only way out of Africa's predicament is to quickly achieve the goal of becoming a key player in the Information and Knowledge Society."