Acting now
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
December 1, 2006
“ALL citizens, businesses and public institutions in Guyana will have the opportunity to participate in the information and knowledge society in order to accelerate national development and prosperity. The time to act is now!"
As framework documents go, the ICT-4D strategy, from which the above quotation is taken, is a fairly comprehensive document. The strategy comes directly out of a large consultation convened earlier this year by President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The document is a reflection of the President’s oft-stated interest in using ICT as a sort of multi-sector master key to unlock this country's developmental potential, and the ideas and opinions of a broad cross section of stakeholders in the local ICT sector.
The consultation itself, the fact that it focused on the democratisation of ICT within the local context, and the relatively swift compilation of the strategy document all boded well for the future of the project.
With a change of hats having been undertaken by the man at the wheel of the initiative, impetus on the strategy unfortunately seems to have effectively been stalled.
ICT-4D Strategy coordinator, Mr. Robert Persaud – the former Information Liaison to the President – has obviously carried his passion for the practical utilisation of information technology into his new portfolio as Minister of Agriculture, as can be gleaned from the recent news that farmers were being encouraged to use ICT in their work.
There is only so much that can be done by one person, however, and the Ministry of Agriculture is a core agency within as largely agrarian an economy as ours.
The indisputable energy which Minister Persaud showed in managing multiple portfolios in his former avatar as Information Liaison will now have to be focused solely on managing this crucial ministry.
With his attention now necessarily focused on other things, the appointment of a high-level stakeholder in the ICT sector – Broadband Wireless' Brian Wong seems the most ideal candidate – is needed to put some new life into the initiative.
If there is a committee that was tasked with moving the initiative forward, it is time to have it visibly reactivated, working to take the next step beyond the policy document.
A small 'multipartisan' group of committed people could do wonders in this regard.
To the hundreds at the ICT4D Strategy consultation held earlier this year, the seriousness of the event, and the sincerity shown by the President, Mr. Persaud and virtually all of those present was without question.
However, half a year and one election later, the charge that the consultation and the resultant strategy document were merely part of the administration's electioneering efforts become increasingly easier to make with each passing day.
If this happens, all the goodwill, good intentions and excellent planning coming out of that seminal initiative would have been in vain.
Moving on with the ICT-4D strategy need not be stopped, or even put on pause, even amidst all the planning for various abstractions geared to assist our economy in leaping forward – from VAT to CWC 2007.
The time to act is, after all, now.