``Africa is truly on the brink of a renaissance. Continuing economic progress depends on continued progress in communications and telecommunications development,'' he told delegates to a conference on telecommunications in Africa.

``With continuing financial instability and uncertainty in Asia, Africa could well turn out to be the region of the world that grows fastest this year,'' Tarjanne said.

The ITU-sponsored Africa Telecom '98 conference, the largest telecommunications event yet held on the continent, gets under way in Johannesburg will bring together more than 300 companies and delegates from over 100 countries.

It will look at issues ranging from providing more telephones in the region to ways in which Africa can play a productive role in the booming $600 billion global telecommunicationsindustry.

Tarjanne said Africa planned to have 20 million mainline telephone users and three million cellular telephone users by 2000, and was expected to build telecommunications infrastructure worth $20 billion by 2003.

There are an estimated 12 million phones in sub-Saharan Africa -- less than in the city of Tokyo -- five million of which are in South Africa. More than half of the world's population lives over two hours' travel from the nearest phone.``Africa is the largest untapped market for telecommunications services and products in the world for foreign investors,'' South Africa's minister for posts, telecommunications and broadcasting Jay Naidoo told a news conference last week.

``The challenge is to be an attractive market, (which can) be achieved by ensuring there is a policy and regulatory framework that is investor-friendly.

''The conference will include displays of a wide range of gadgetry as well as a forum drawing together some top decision-makers, whom organisers said had ``thenecessary power, vision, courage, and perhaps most importantly capital, to change the face of telecommunications development across the African region.

''Speakers include president and chief operating officer Craig Barrett of US-based microchip giant Intel Corp and president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn.

South African deputy president Thabo Mbeki will host a meeting on Monday intended to accelerate the process of attracting foreign telecommunications investment to the continent, by getting African policy makers to commit themselves to telecom development and creating investor-friendly conditions.

President and chief executive Joseph Okpaku of Telecom Africa, said in a speech prepared for delivery at the conference that Africa spent almost $4.0 billion a year importing telecommunications goods and services.