IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

India's top political leadership, dealing with telecom and IT broadband, re-instated that they believe that broadband is going to be the next revolution after mobile phones. And also that broadband penetration will be one of the building blocks for national development. Speaking at a seminar organized by Internet Service Providers of India (ISPAI) and Communication Multimedia and Infrastructure Association of India (CMAI), Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Indian Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovations; Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot, both Minister of State for Communications and IT, agreed that broadband will play a key role in India's ambition to be economic and cultural powerhouse.

The importance of ICTs to people’s socio-economic livelihoods cannot be over emphasised in todays’s information era.Botswana national vision 2016 aims that by 2016, all citizens should be able to gain access to and exploit ICT’S for various aspects of their lives.

But the million dollar question is how to ensure equitable access to ICT by all citizens when the cost of computers and internet is still high in Botswana?

The Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi, says information and communications technology (ICT) is a key component in diversifying and growing economies.

Speaking at the commemoration of the 150th World Telecommunications and Information Society day in Ghanzi on Saturday (May 16), Mr Masisi said in order for Botswana to change its fortunes, the country must tap into the power of ICT and develop explicit solutions aimed at transforming its socio economic landscape.

Botswana as a country, Mr Masisi noted, came far with ICT issues and had managed to catch the bandwagon towards knowledge economy through the use of ICT and that there had been a complete transformation in the country.

Speaking at the International Telecommunications (ITU) workshop yesterday, Molefhi said Africa's inadequate ICT infrastructure contributes to limited prospects for the continent's integration as many African countries are at the lower rank of the ICT status. "Africa has low ICT skills base. It is therefore critical that as we continue to put more resources in the area of ICT infrastructure development, we should equally intensify our efforts to develop and manage human capital," he said.He said if properly leveraged, ICT tools are sources of vital management information for decision-making, and enable human resources management to become more strategic within organisations.

Speaking at the just ended ICT Pitso that was organised by the ministry, Molefi said it is imperative that communities investigate how currently available and existing technology in Botswana can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of service provision in both private and public sectors of the economy.

According to Dr. Colin Young, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology and Public Utilities, in developing the policies “we will be looking at the best possible ways that Belize can harness the use of ICTs to transform the way government does business with the public as well as how the private sector and civil societies can use ICTs to improve their efficiency”.

At least Ian Wilson hopes so. The Stratford Institute executive director sounded a call to action after painting a fairly bleak picture of Canada's competitive position as a digital nation.

"We're slipping in terms of productivity, in terms of our use of this technology, and we need to do something about it," said Wilson as he presented the findings of his Stratford Report 2011.

At the writing of this column, the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) said the number of unfilled jobs in the IT sector will grow to 106,000 by 2016.

Oddly enough, IT and information communication technology (ICT) are the fastest growing sectors of the Canadian economy with the industry’s unemployment rate hovering between 2% and 3%, which is statistically viewed as full employment. If that’s not enough to drive talent to these fields, in this tight labour market the IT and ICT workforce is well-compensated in regard to salary with an average wage 52% higher than the national average.

Education experts and social scientists also support this by saying education is key to success because it empowers people to cope with the challenges of life with an informed mind.Camara, an International organization, is one of the organizations that has been using the saying to champion education transformation in various countries of the world through the use of technology.

It will be hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goals without fully integrating the Information and Communication Technology component. This is the key idea that came out from the visit to Cameroon of Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

In the health sector these technologies have proven to be a significant factor for an effective and comprehensive planning, management and estimation of healthcare. The increased development of and use of these technologies in health delivery systems in the industrialised countries led to an improvement of the quality of service, security as well as to cost reduction for patients.

The Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) has teamed up with tech giant Google to establish a network of three ICT centres in Northern Ghana, which will act as hubs for learning, communication and entrepreneurship in some of the poorest and most remote rural regions of Northern Ghana.

Camfed is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women. Camfed has been working in Ghana since 1998 and, with the help of the Ministry of Education, has reached 50,000 children in the Northern Region, as well as training 0ver 2000 women in economic and life skills.

An often overlooked aspect of the current electoral cycle in Sierra Leone is the use of biometric technology to capture thumb prints and facial features in the registration of voters.

While the Ontario government is dealing with the political fallout of the eHealth Ontario scandal and Ottawa reviews its funding commitments to Canada Health Infoway, a new research report suggests Canada may need to fill approximately 12,000 IT-related health-care jobs within the next five years.

In his keynote speech at the federal government's technology forum, GTEC, Tuesday, Mr. O'Brien announced an aggressive plan to turn the city into an Internet-friendly capital that will be the envy of cities across North America.

A colleague recently sent me a report by McKinsey that touches on the topic. "Fostering the Economic and Social Benefits of ICT," is a chapter in a 2010 report published by the World Economic Forum. In addition to highlighting ICT's share of global GDP in 2008 (5.4 per cent) and a projection for GDP share in 2020 (8.7 per cent), the report looks at the role ICT plays in improving education, healthcare and government services.

Fifty-six remote communities across Northwest Territories and Nunavut will soon benefit from enhanced broadband access, which will improve community sustainability in Canada's North.

The Honourable Diane Ablonczy, Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism), on behalf of the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, along with Darrell Ohokannoak, Chairman of the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp (NBDC), and Darrell Beaulieu, President and CEO of Falcon Communications GP Ltd, today announced federal support of $36,415,295 for the expansion of broadband access across communities in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories (NWT) in Canada's North.

The province has a deadline of the end of 2009 for service across the province, but says service will become available to subscribers as the infrastructure is put in place.

An update of progress on the Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative explains that the wireless signal backbone will be built first, using existing towers.

Ontario's budget, unveiled Tuesday, parcels new spending to the IT industry in the form of provisions for e-health, and spending on skills training.

A priority of bringing faster Internet to rural areas could benefit local townships as part of the federal and provincial governments' joint $6.2-billion funding announcement last week.

The two levels of government finally shook hands on Ontario's portion of the national Building Canada plan that will invest $33 billion in long-term funding for infrastructure across the country.