For a well connected, knowledge-based nation

Jul 10, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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September 2016 will witness the grand opening of the long-awaited ICT Centre of Excellence located on the University of Guyana Turkeyen campus, inside the building that currently houses the National Data Management Authority (NDMA). Refurbishment works to modernize and outfit the structure will commence soon after the contract has been awarded. The Tender is now out.
By September, the building should be equipped with new electrical and technological installations that would transform it into the nation’s first learning facility for advanced level information technology skills, e.g. in advanced web networking and website designing. The ultimate objective is to enable the public sector to deliver ALL of the services it is supposed to deliver with speed and accuracy.
One more is to fill the void that was created over the past 20 years by the acute brain drain that Guyana has been reeling from.
Almost all of our qualified skills, not only in the ICT services sector, fled to other countries, even to neighbouring Suriname, Aruba, Bonaire and Trinidad, to seek jobs that paid wages worth their salt, jobs that enabled them to climb academically and socially. Guyana was left in the dust, literally, with a huge chasm and only a few available skills to do the work and develop basic ICT skills among our youths.
It’s no wonder that ICT development was placed at the top of the Coalition government’s agenda 11 months ago. President Granger and PM Nagamootoo have said on numerous occasions that Guyana was too far behind the rest of the world in terms of our connectability to the worldwide web, operating on 2G (second Generation) internet speed for nearly a decade while the rest of the world was running on third and now fourth generation speeds.
$3.1B FOR ICT
DEVELOPMENT
This was the announcement Finance Minister Winston Jordan had made during his presentation of Budget 2016 under the theme: “Stimulating Growth, Restoring Confidence: The Good Life Beckons”. He’d said that this Government is determined to invest in ICT infrastructure and related services to ensure that Guyanese across the length and breadth of this land have better than adequate access to the internet.
This, he is certain, will vastly enhance our lives and our ability to earn from the land and from what we learn.
Hon. Cathy Hughes has shone an equally bright spotlight on this need to bridge the gap between our people living on the coastland with those living in interior regions and the hinterland. More than once she’s told the story of the Rupununi Weavers, who years ago lost their markets for the beautiful hand-made hammocks they wove mainly because they lost contact with their customers.
The Minister was painting a picture of the short and long term benefits these women residing in the deep South Rupununi and in other parts of Guyana’s hinterland will have very shortly just as soon as they get easy access to the internet at 4G speed
She made reference as well to the makers of handicraft items from Guyana’s decorative woods like Wamara and Purpleheart, and from Tibisiri and Nibi, women living at Santa Mission or Orealla, who pay a lot of money to get their products out to the city for sale.
This is soon going to be a thing of the past.
A National ICT Needs Assessment of e-services for hinterland, poor and remote communities across Guyana, has just begun. It is a baseline study to determine what ICT-related facilities and human capabilities are already in place. The information will be used to craft a much larger project to provide the infrastructure (including buildings), equipment (including computers and other ICT devices), and human skills that the communities do not already have.
The e-Government Agency, one of several arms of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications, is the executing agency, and the funds for this project are coming from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) that is being overseen by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
BRIDGING THE COAST AND HINTERLAND
According to the Bureau of Statistics’ last population census, over 600,000 of Guyana’s 745,000 (approx.) populace reside on the Coastlands.
The small remainder are scattered in small enclaves throughout Guyana’s heavily forested, mountainous inland regions populated with a high concentration of indigenous peoples.
This group constitutes nine sub-groups spread across an estimated 187 communities at varying stages of integration with the national economy. The communities are typically characterized by the co-existence of well-preserved traditional lifestyles, large forested land ownership, and cultural freedoms with various kinds of subsistence/incoming generating activities. Poor communities can also be found in urban coastal and rural coastal areas and the people residing therein have similar needs.
Unfortunately, our current internet and broadband infrastructure are only concentrated in the coastal region with sparse and expensive connectivity options in inland areas and remote communities. As a result, certain public services are not easily accessible to residents in these areas. Structural rigidities and cost barriers mean that there is limited private sector interest in servicing these areas, and public sector intervention is therefore required in order to provide the enabling environment for hinterland, poor and remote communities to access ICT and e-Services.
The Government of Guyana (GoG) is fully committed to the social, economic, and environmental development of Guyana – and is determined to bridge the developmental gaps by ensuring that redistribution measures benefit all.
The Needs Assessment/Baseline Study will last until November 2016. The E-government Agency envisages that the larger project to install the people and infrastructure inside the far-flung areas will begin by the first quarter of 2017.
In the meantime, preparations are underway for the first semester of the Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) at Turkeyen.
The GoG in partnership with the Government of India will provide the wherewithal for advanced level training of ICT professionals and potential IT Managers.
At the same time, the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) will develop work programmes to satisfy its mandate.
The NDMA is the agency responsible for data processing and information systems in the Public Sector.
It will resume its focus on improving the Public Sector’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) preparedness, working in tandem with the e-Government Agency and the Ministry of Public Telecommunications.
Its main focus will be on developing workers’ knowledge and competencies in ICT to enhance office productivity and general services to the public, e.g. certificates of birth, death and marriage, and business compliance.

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