Director General of Smart Africa
Prior to that Mr Koné was Advisor to the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire for Digital Transformation and Public Reforms, also served as Advisor to the President from 2011-2017. Mr Koné has over 25 years of experience in technical and managerial positions in the technology industry, including with Booz Allen Hamilton and Intelsat, and has expertise in telecommunications, IT, satellites, and intelligent transport systems. Mr Koné earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Ajman University in the United Arab Emirates, a master’s degree from Brunel University in the United Kingdom, and an MBA at George Washington University in USA.
With national digital transformation advancing, more and more governments realize the need of providing interfaces and possibilities for cross-border data exchange and service integration. While technical interoperability seems feasible, the legal and organizational collaboration seems to be barriers to taking down national and regional digital “silos”. How can we foster this integration, how can we build digital single markets creating more public value? To begin we would like to learn how important (if at all) is at the moment the cross-border and regional collaboration for digital transformation. Do governments recognize the need for cooperation? If yes, then is it entirely about harmonization and interoperability or are there also initiatives towards jointly addressing problems and finding solutions for these problems together?
