The state of ICT

“Saying that this is the first plan doesn’t mean that the other two plans were unsuccessful.” The difference between these two statements by Maxie Cuffie, Public Administration and Communications minister is a year. The first was made during an interview with Business Day last year, the second, during the recent launch of Fastforward II.

Fastforward II is this country’s latest draft national ICT plan.

Business Day sat with Cuffie after the event to discuss it and where this country’s ICT is heading. We bring up the issue of implementation, as we did during the interview last year. The public is always hearing about plans, but very rarely the results. Fastforward II was preceded by a Fastforward I and SmartTT plan both covering the period from 2003 to 2016.

“The first version of Fast Forward led to Gov.net, the government backbone as well as lot of infrastructure. It was really geared toward increasing connectivity as well. SmarTT was also about going for greater connectivity. It had a short lifespan, but it had some successes.

Because of the changes in the ICT industry, cloud computing, for example, now plays a far bigger role than it did say four or five years ago.

You need to consequently update your plans and make them and make them consistent with the changes in technology. That is what this plan is about,” said Cuffie.

Some of the successes the plan reported was this country’s move up the World Economic Forum Network Readiness Index from 70 to 2015, to 67 out of 139 countries. It also has a mobile penetration as of 157 per cent, where the average for most countries is 97 per cent. As of 2013, 70 per cent of homes in this country had computers versus 42 per cent in 2010. Meanwhile Internet household penetration has jumped from 58 percent in 2014 to 65 percent in 2015.

It also said all government entities are now online and the government portal, TTconnect, makes available 627 services for citizens, 256 for businesses and 118 for non-residents.

The plan also cites improvements in the number of service providers available, as well as the quality and choice of services and a reduction in prices. ICT’s contribution to the country’s GDP also increased from three per cent or three billion in 2006 to 3.4 per cent or 5.59 billion in 2015.

But it recognised shortfalls as well.

This country still relied largely on market forces to construct this country’s ICT infrastructure and said this may not be enough. The country also lagged behind developed nations in the productive and innovative use of ICT. The population, moreover, was still largely unaware of e-services and even though ICT penetration itself was high, digital literacy remained relatively low. Several pieces of legislation within the Electronic Transaction Act and the Data Protection Act, necessary to support the operation of ICT infrastructure, remain in limbo.

We discussed these during last year’s interview with Cuffie. Then, he had deemed the legislation one of his main priorities.

This year, he admitted some of the legislation was still unproclaimed and it was affecting the implementation of other initiatives. One of these is the roll out of Wi-Fi across the country. So far, 13 buses feature the technology. We asked the minister for an update.

“The telecommunications provided for it,” said Cuffie, “But it was not spelt out and enforceable. What we needed to do was to get the act amended and implemented. We are in the process of doing that now. While we are doing that, we are working on a schedule as to where we are putting it, how we are going to deploy it. We now have commitment, because I have spoken to the telecommunications authority and the providers. To facilitate the deployment of Wi-Fi at no cost to the public, the concessionaires will be absorbing the cost.” Cuffie shied away from saying more until the details were approved by Cabinet.

The plan has ambitious targets.

Over its five-year life span, it seeks to increase this ICT’s contribution to this country’s GDP by five per cent, increase broadband access to 85 per cent with minimum download speeds of 100 mbps for households and businesses, 30,000 directly created jobs and number one status among our the Caribbean neighbours in the World Economic Forum rankings, among others.

It is expected to be reviewed in 2021. Built within the plan is also a measure to monitor the implementation of Fastforward II’s objectives, including the formulation of a National ICT steering committee and the appointment of a National Chief Information Officer.

The stakes for success, or failure, are high.

The World Bank estimates for every ten per cent increase in Internet speeds boosts economic growth by 1.3 per cent.

“I just want to underscore the importance of this for diversification and for economic growth. People don’t see the connection,” Cuffie told Business Day. “They expect to see that we are going to open this a company. But an economy isn’t driven by government. It is driven by ordinary businesses and what we are doing is facilitating through ICT, the growth of businesses.” The draft plan is available on the public administration and communications ministry’s website for feedback and comment.