The National Government Research Report, identifying various key trends in South Africa's ICT development, was released on Tuesday at a media briefing in Johannesburg by ForgeAhead, a leading ICT Research and Consulting House.
The report focused on ICT development, management skills, convergence in cyberspace, cyberspace security and e-Government.
Research manager for National Government at ForgeAhead Nicky Pope told media "national government departments are moving to citizen centred service provision and not bureaucracy centred governance."
"The departments are gearing towards results and attempting to be more service delivery orientated."
Ms Pope added the country's ICT development was focussed on using technology for economic and social development.
In line with this, South Africa's IT Strategy Project (SAITIS) was established jointly by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Communications in order to promote a robust ICT sector, increase population usage of ICTs for economic and social growth, foster a knowledgeable ICT workforce and create a culture of ICT innovation, said Ms Pope.
The establishment of SAITIS has resulted in increasing internet services to schools, creating an academy for software development, providing community internet access points and installing public information terminals allowing for access to government services.
ForgeAhead research found future investment in technology focused on increasing internet connectivity, adding "there will be heavy investment in information security software especially in anti-virus, firewall and spam protection software," she said.
E-Government is the integration and use of ICTs within departments to fast track service delivery to the public through providing e-services in spheres such as education, health and administration.
A survey was also conducted by ForgeAhead from February to April 2007 in different government clusters namely, the Governance and Administration Cluster, the Social Cluster, the Economic Cluster, the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS) and the International Relations, Peace and Security Cluster.
The survey involved two questionnaires given to both Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and information technology technicians within the five clusters; yielding a 91 percent response reported the research house.
The CIO questionnaire focussed on ICT strategies and polices, whilst the second questionnaire looked at the design involved in systems, software and hardware audits.
In terms of personal computers (PCs) with access to the internet within the various clusters, research found the Economic Cluster led with 90 percent, the Governance Cluster had 83 percent, the JCPS Cluster registered 75 percent PC internet usage followed by the Social Cluster with 65 percent.
The report included factors which inhibited ICT growth and development in government departments and found "skills, staff capacities and budgets allocated for human resources" to be the greatest inhibitors.
Head of Consulting at ForgeAhead Edwin Schofield added "the skills which are needed are just not thick enough on the ground."
President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation Address earlier this year also stressed that government is planning to improve competition in the economy, lower the cost of doing business and promote investment, and further develop high-speed national and international broadband capacity.
ForgeAhead announced the current trend is government will "promote broadband [and ICT usage] not only for economic gains but also to achieve good governance."
Autor(en)/Author(s): Michael Appel
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 04.07.2007
