Kenya was selected to be one of five countries to set up a mobile application development laboratory (mlab) and officially launched the new facility on June 17. Analysts and observers of the country's growing ICT and telecom sector says this is a “giant step” in the positive direction for the country's economy. “This is a great, giant step toward creating a country where technology is paramount to our overall economic success and we believe it will help drive more investment in these sectors,” said one analyst on the sidelines of the launch. The other five hosts for the mlab are South Africa, Pakistan, Vietnam and Armenia. The goal of the facility is to encourage innovation and competitiveness in SME's on an ICT platform. The lab is supported by Finland's government, Nokia and the World Bank. According to a press statement from the companies on the launching of the mlabs, the goal is to help create an environment for innovators and entrepreneurs to create and make their ideas into business opportunities that will create new jobs in their home countries and regions. “After incubation, these ideas will be shifted from the labs to the business commercial sector,” said Kenya's Secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communication Bitange Ndemo at the launch. He added that Kenya's ICT success will help continue to boost the country's GDP as it grows and makes an impact. BM
