September 22, 2004
African Leaders Seek More Cell Phones, Computers
African leaders will launch a global fund to help people in poor countries buy mobile phones and Internet access as a step out of poverty and into economic growth, the president of Senegal said on Wednesday, reports Reuters
"There are more telephones in Manhattan than in all Africa," President Abdoulaye Wade said at a news conference held on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.
The new fund, pooling voluntary contributions solicited from buyers of high-tech goods in wealthy nations, will be launched in Geneva on Nov. 17, Wade said.
While the fund will primarily help poorer countries, wealthy nations also have a stake in its success as the fund will bring in "millions and millions of dollars" that will be used to buy equipment from the industrialized world, he said.
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