Improved ICT sector holds key to Guyana’s development

ADVANCED Information and Communication Technology (ICT) possesses the power to transform all aspects of a country’s development. In this regard, the Government of Guyana has made several moves toward improving the ICT accessibility of the country.President David Granger’s vision is for a nation which allows all Guyanese to have access to information and has been one of the key priorities of his administration’s push for the good life for all Guyanese. On the July 28 edition of The Public Interest, the President spoke about the expansion of basic services to outlying regions in the country, including ICT services. Noting that it is critical, the President said there are still many areas where communication is not possible.
The President stated, however, that his administration intends to change that. “That is why the Department of Public Information (DPI) has opened up radio stations and we will continue to extend it until every part of Guyana can be accessed not only in terms of televisions and telephones, but other forms of communication. That is one of the reasons why I set up the ministry of Public Telecommunications,” the President said.
In this regard, the Ministry of Public Telecommunications has a packed agenda. Established at the beginning of the year, the mandate of the ministry is to enhance the ICT services of the country, while focusing on all aspects of the digital economy, including public telecommunications and information technology. As such, moves such as the recent passage of the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2016, prove to be significant advancements toward bringing Guyana up to par with the rest of the world in the area of information technology.
On the eve of the passage of the Telecommunications Bill in the National Assembly last month, Minister of Public Telecommunications, Mrs Catherine Hughes, said that the Bill serves as a breakthrough for the telecommunications sector in Guyana. The minister added that the government recognises the impact that the telecommunications sector has on the advancement of economies and societies around the world. Giving a brief summary of the scope of the Bill, the minister stated that it establishes a modern regime, which takes into account international best practices. She added that the Bill also draws particularly from the laws and experiences of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states.
The Telecommunications Bill will not only help to bring to fruition President David Granger’s vision of a new regime for a liberalised and competitive telecommunications sector, but will also bridge the communication gap currently experienced by those living in far outlying areas, such as the hinterland regions. In June, this year, the government signed an ICT Needs Assessment project to be conducted in hinterland communities and other rural areas. The project aimed to assess what infrastructure, technical capacity, and legal framework have been already established or would be required in those areas.

During brief remarks at the ceremony of the signing of the contract, Minister Hughes said that Guyana is indeed behind with regard to ICT, which results in the inability to meet the demands of various sectors. “Guyana needs to become more familiar and to use technology as part of everyday life and without improved broadband access, the stats show that countries will not develop to the extent we want them to develop,” Minister Hughes said.
The minister noted that the needs-assessment project, which is funded by the Guyana Redd+ Investment Fund, will also help to bridge that gap by evaluating the country’s ICT needs, noting that the advancement of the country’s technological capacity was one of the first promises President Granger made, upon assuming office.
Another implementing agency, which focuses on the advancement of ICT, is the E-Government Agency which focuses on providing support to ministries and government agencies so as to enable them to provide government services to citizens on an inter-connected database.
Chief Executive Officer of the Agency, Mr Floyd Levi, explained that the unit’s first task was to operationalise an e-government network, which spans Charity in the Pomeroon-Supenaam region (Region Two) to Skeldon in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region (Region Six). He said that plans to extend this network to communities in the hinterland have begun, and will be executed in 2017. This network, which will allow sensitive information to be shared among government agencies, therefore requires utmost security measures so as to prevent loss or intrusion. As such, Mr Levi stated that cyber security becomes an extremely important aspect of the agency’s operations. “We have established a Cyber Security Department and have taken necessary steps to ensure that we have put all security measures in place; devices, policies, routine inspections and so on, to prevent and detect if there is ever an intrusion,” he said.
Cyber Security Manager within the Policy and Training Department of the Agency, Ms Muriana McPherson, stated that it is necessary to ensure that there are effective Cyber Security policies in place and that staff within the government agencies are made aware of Cyber Security measures so as to be able to know what they need to do to keep the government data secure and do not face any ill consequences of using the internet. “We want to ensure that as we connect the different agencies, that the data remains confidential and is not modified in any authorised fashion and that whatever connectivity is required is always available when needed. So we want to make sure that we put whatever mechanisms in place to protect government information and its ICT assets,” she said.
So far, the key ministries with which the E-Government Agency is involved are the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health. The agency is currently working on providing a framework for these ministries to become interconnected so as to deliver services across the country more efficiently. Such projects include: the expansion of the Closed Circuit Television Camera services with the Ministry of Public Security and working with the Ministry of Public Health to provide an interconnected database for major hospitals around the country.
Within the Ministry of Education, the agency has also started a project that aims to connect the secondary schools on one database as well. The Ministry of Education has lots of materials to be disseminated to the schools, so this is now being done digitally across the e-government network. All the books and training materials have been prepared in a digital format that will allow students and teachers to access information electronically,” Mr Levi said. Senior ICT Engineer, Mr Ish Singh, who is working on this project, said that it entails connecting 124 secondary schools. This connection will allow children to access resources electronically and will also look at electronic testing at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), as well as on-line submission and marking of School Based Assessments (SBAs) so as to ensure the efficiency and digital literacy of engineers who would be involved in the roll-out process of expanding ICT services. The agency is also looking towards the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT), which will be based at the University of Guyana.
Mrs Kim Lawrence Craig, Coordinator for the CEIT said that the unit will offer specialised training services to ICT officers. She stated that the main objective is to improve the skills of ICT personnel working with government agencies, who will be responsible for helping to make government services more ICT-friendly.
Mr Levi said that the sole aim of the agency is to make Guyana into a digital society where the needs of Guyanese can be met and can take services and connect far outlying areas. “So the vision is for us to have an equitable distribution of ICTs, so we can all enjoy the benefits of digital citizenship in Guyana. That means that whatever our vocation is, whether it is in education, farming, industry, mining or whatever, that we can use ICT to do it much better than we are doing right now,” he said.
The agency is also involved with several other ICT-related projects, among which also includes an on-line reporting network through which citizens can air their concerns to various government ministries as well as an on-line visa issuance programme with the Ministry of Citizenship. Guyana ranks as number 114 among 167 countries listed in the 2015 United Nations ICT Development Index. The Index measures the infrastructural access, capability and ICT performance of various countries. This is the lowest rank in the Region in comparison to countries such as Barbados, which is ranked at number 29 and Trinidad and Tobago which rank at number 70.
For Guyanese, improved ICT services will mean greater efficiency in the delivery of services and it will remove geographical limitations. It will provide better education, more employment opportunities, easier access to information, new communication methods and facilitate the development of new industries among other benefits. Guyana can look forward to a future where these strides being made toward developing the ICT sector in the country will result in unlimited access to information, like the rest of the developed world.