IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

BuddeComm has been predicting for at least the last 20 years that major changes in technology will have massive social and economic implications. Unlike previous ‘revolutions’ that changed the world, this ‘digital revolution’ is unfolding within a short timeframe of 20-30 years. Compare this to the industrial revolution which developed over a few hundred years and the agricultural revolution that took a few thousand years - and it becomes easy to see how quickly we must adapt and accept this fast changing landscape.

With the rise of digital platforms, the world is rapidly changing. In newspaper and book publishing, TV and radio, film, music, and other forms of media, we see that the walls that protected organisations within traditional models are crumbling. Yet, despite the obvious need to move with the times, many professionals and organisations are still grappling with the digital economy and questioning the impact it will have on them – or, even worse, are ignorant about it. In many cases, their own consumers are well ahead of them. The public sector is also seriously affected; it should learn from the problems in other areas, especially book and newspaper publishing. Healthcare and education are classic examples here.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Anudith Nakornthap announced the plan on Monday when inaugurating a seminar on "Smart Thailand: Modern Public Services through High Speed Internet", in which executives and senior officials of all ministries and government agencies took part.

Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has said that the government is committed for digitalization and transforming Pakistan into Digital economy.

She was talking to Global System for Mobile Communications Association's Head of Asia Pacific Julian Gorman who called on her in Islamabad.

In an interview, Minister Chamisa said his ministry's vision was to make Zimbabwe an information society for it to compete on the global standards.

"People from all walks of life should be exposed and have access to information technology for the country to develop.

While the development and growth of the telecommunications and ICT industry has been tremendous over the years, the emergence of next generation technologies and new ICT policies has resulted in a number of discussions revolving around the need for harmonized national ICT policies in the SAMENA region. Against the backdrop of this need for policies that will help with the ICT industry's development and progress in the region, SAMENA Telecommunications Council, the tri-regional telecommunications consortium will convene some of the industry leading CEO's, experts and decision makers at its annual "Beyond Connectivity 2012" conference from April 3rd-4th in Muscat, Oman.

Industry and capital markets have high expectations after the national-level Digital China blueprint was released this week to guide China's development of the digital economy in terms of data, artificial intelligence, cloud, 5G and other innovations.

The guidelines set a specific timeline for China's digital construction. By 2025, the digital infrastructure will be efficiently connected through a broad range of sectors, and China will become a global leader in digital innovations. By 2035, the level of digital development in China will be at the forefront of the world, according to the Digital China blueprint.

In Summary

• The African Union has set an ambitious goal of connecting everyone on the continent to the internet by 2030.
• All stakeholders must all pitch in, failing which digital economy remains a pipe dream.

On Monday morning we hosted a parliamentary delegation on transport safety and in the afternoon welcomed a senior leadership group from the NSW Police.

On Tuesday morning we scoped a data analytics project with a major telco and a large logistics company.

Digitization is not, however, a panacea for economic woes. Rather, the closer you examine digitization, the more you discover the subtle differences in its impact across countries and sectors. For policymakers, perhaps tempted to push digitization across the board, this more detailed level of understanding is critical. It allows them to shape policies to maximize the benefits of digitization.

“Through the use of computer and internet services, users can nowadays communicate faster, while in the past they relied on letter writing only, which was time consuming. So, letter writing has dropped considerably thanks to ICT advancement,” says an ICT expert Alexander Mugaya, who runs his own business in Dar es Salaam.

According to Mugaya, Tanzania is rapidly changing because of ICT advancement and people can now communicate and get things done faster.

The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which envisions “The Future We Want”, has singled out information and communication technologies (ICTs) in facilitating the flow of information between governments and the public, promoting knowledge exchange, technical cooperation and capacity building for all three pillars of sustainable development – economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

ICT Minister Group Captain Anudith Nakornthap said when he presided over a seminar on Smart Thailand that the ministry has a policy to extend internet coverage to 80-85% nationwide within four years and to improve readiness of the public service in the same time.

Digitization can play an important role in developing sharia economy and finance in Indonesia because it could arrest a decline in the sale of halal products, boost certification of such products, and enable social fund transactions, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin.

"Digitization can play a significant role in, among other things, holding the pace of the decline in the sales of halal industrial products, accelerating online audit mechanisms in applying for halal certificates, and encouraging an increase in the value of sharia (economy),” Amin said.

A recent worldwide survey of Internet download speeds placed Palembang and the East Java capital of Surabaya near the bottom of the pile, both finishing in the bottom 12 in average download speed. An Internet user in Surabaya reportedly has to wait for up to an hour to download a song off the Web, which in this day and age is unacceptable.

Perry, who is Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, with special responsibility for Small Business, today highlighted the importance for Ireland Inc of sustaining momentum in relation to the digital agenda.

If there is anyone who is expert on the realities of rolling out fibre infrastructure and future wireless technologies, it is former BT Ireland CEO Graham Sutherland.

A National Digital Strategy that aims to assist members of the public and businesses to “do more online”, will be published today by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte.

Mr Rabbitte said the digital part of the economy is growing 16 per cent per year, more than 10 times the rate of growth of the economy as a whole. Furthermore, digital contributes 4.4 per cent, or €7.1 billion, of Ireland’s GDP. So technology should be exploited to assist with economic recovery.

Addressing the ICT Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Tuesday, Motlanthe said only 5.7% of Africans had access to the internet and while the continent made up 14% of the world's population, only 3.6% of the world's internet subscribers were from Africa.

"We believe that strategic investment in ICT will allow Africa to increasingly play a role in the development of new applications and technological innovations that are relevant for the needs of our continent and that this will ensure a continued multiplier effect on economic growth," he said.

The state implemented many prestigious initiatives in the past like e-district, e-tendering, Aadhaar enrolment etc and most of the departments have already embraced e-governance in one form or the other to achieve this ambitious target, he said while inaugurating the 17th National Conference on e-Governance here.