FOREWORD The uptake and use of ICTs has greatly increased in recent years with the high uptake seeing the “digital divide” between rural and urban areas being reduced dramatically. This is evidenced by the high growth registered by Zimbabwe’s ICT indicators with active mobile penetration reaching 95.4% and Internet penetration surpassing 45% as at 31 December 2015. Rapid and robust infrastructural development and rejuvenation has enabled the development and availability of a plethora of e-services, which consumers have embraced as easier means to communicate and transact between person to person, person to business and business to business. There has been adoption of mobile money transfer, and various broadband applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype. Government is also making great strides in the use of ICTs by introducing various e-Government services to the citizenry. Effort and investment have been made in the fields of ICT backbone infrastructure development, ICTs in education, research and development, the creation of Community Information Centres, ICT governance and the training of legislators and government officials in ICT usage. Zimbabwe is now connected to the undersea fibre optic network through SEACOM, WACS and EASSy. While there is marked progress in the areas mentioned above, further efforts are needed so that the vision for ICT development in Zimbabwe is realised. ICTs should be developed into one of the major pillars of our socio-economic development and growth. The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-ASSET) clearly spells out ICTs as one of the pillars for national socio-economic development. ICTs are given a key role as enablers for all other sectors to leapfrog in their development. In organizing these developments the Policy proposes various goals and statements. It is therefore my sincere hope that all sectors of the society and economy will continue to harness the power of ICTs for the development of our nation. On behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe I extend my humble gratitude to line Ministries, Government Departments, all Stakeholders around the country and our different financial sponsors, who made the review process a success. Honourable S. C. Mandiwanzira, MP MINISTER OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, POSTAL AND COURIER SERVICES 3