IT for vision 2020

TRINIDAD and Tobago, with the rest of the world, has entered the Age of Information and there is no need to emphasise the fact that our progress as a nation will depend on how comprehensively we grasp and utilise this amazing technology. The business of government, every profession, every productive enterprise, indeed almost every aspect of our personal life and development proceed, to a determining and decisive extent, on our command and use of Information and Communication Technology. So crucial and pervasive has this technology become, in fact, that Hollywood could produce a hit movie fantasizing about these high-tech machines being used to take over the world and launch doomsday, the stuff of Terminator III. It goes without saying, then, that small developing countries must, at the very least, become fully functional in ICT if they are not to be left behind. For Trinidad and Tobago, aspiring to achieve developed nation status by 2020, the need to master the use of computers and modern communication systems is imperative. In this regard, we think it is necessary for students at secondary and tertiary level to have access to computers and training in the use of the technology. Becoming literate in this area, in our view, is now just as important as learning to read and write and calculate effectively. The large foreign corporations and multi-nationals who have extensive investments in our country's energy sector will be doing themselves a favour if they assist the country in this objective.

In any case, the basic responsibility for TT acquiring this technological facility lies with the Government which, it is assuring to see, recognises the need and is devising strategies to achieve it. According to Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Senator Christine Sahadeo, the Government intends to provide education and training at all levels in the areas of computer literacy, Internet usage, e-commerce and associated technologies. The Senator was delivering her first public address at the inaugural session of the Workshop for e-commerce Competitiveness for Small Business Development in the Caribbean Region, held at the Hilton on Monday. She disclosed that the workshop was part of Government's national plan for the Development of the Information and Communication Technology Sector, which it regarded as critical to the modernisation of TT. The emphasis, she added, would be placed on the development of world class communication and computer infrastructure, as well as the further liberalisation of trade, telecommunications and information technology. The plan also makes it clear that we cannot develop e-commerce to the fullest if large sections of the population remain uninvolved and untouched by the development of the information, communications and technology sectors. The intention is to make it easier, as well as more affordable for the public to gain access to the Internet and associated technologies "so that citizens can benefit from the numerous opportunities provided by an electronically driven environment." The Senator's articulation of the country's need and Government's response to it is commendable but she was short on details for the practical implementation of the plan. The training in and use of technology is a hands-on exercise, requiring a connection between user and machine. What method, what organisation, what system the Government plans to use to get the population involved is still to be seen.