Many years of disorganisation at the Department of Communications (DOC) has left SA without a national ICT policy, and without the co-ordinated efforts to stimulate local IT markets. The DOC recently held a colloquium intended to kick-start the policy process, but will it yield results in time to salvage SA's competitive standings?
A national ICT policy should cover three broad areas, while remaining closely aligned to overall government objectives. The stimulation of the IT industry, measured by sector performance versus GDP, is one key area. Another is e-government: the use of ICT to improve government services internally, or deliver services electronically. And regulation is also fundamental, with issues such as spectrum allocation and management of the competitive telecoms environment at the forefront of ICT development.
“Network operators must be encouraged to share infrastructure which, I believe, will enable them to make savings and maximise broadband deployment to the home and business as well as reduce the cost to communicate,” she said.
Read more: ZA: Department of Communications outlines future ICT plans
Last Wednesday Dlamini-Zuma unveiled the credit card-size cards, which will encode personal and biometric information.
Dlamini-Zuma said the smartcard would allow citizens to have a modern identification card rather than an ID book, which was easy to forge.
The information and communications technology (ICT) industry is urging the government to increase its promotion of locally developed software applications as this will also help in "digitising" the government.
The government is about to embark on a comprehensive review of its ICT policies.
So says Kevin Phillips, MD of idu Software, who notes that the country needs real-time, online and easily understandable and accessible information. “With this greater transparency would come greater accountability and greater faith in the system.”
According to the International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Survey 2010, for the 94 countries surveyed, the average 2010 score for strength of the legislature on budget transparency was 44 out of 100.