D. GROUP DISCUSSION

 

The last part of the workshop was a group discussion on very important issues related to ICT development. The participants of the workshop were organized into three groups for discussion and for formulating conclusions and recommendations. Here are the workshop results:

 

KEY ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

as synthesized by
Mr. Rene Lavidalie of SEGEPLAN and Mr. Achmad Rofi’ie of NAM CSSTC

 

1) E-Readiness:

1.1)    Concept.

1.2)    The importance and need of an E-Readiness study (objectives, methodology, statistics and updates).

2) NAM CSSTC support to NAM member countries (follow-up agenda):

2.1)    Meetings, seminars or regional workshops.

2.2)    Training.

2.3)     NAM networking system.

2.1)     NAM CSSTC expert database.

2.2)     NAM Task force.

3) Local, regional and global integration strategies:

3.1)    E-Leadership.

3.2)    Education – Training.

3.3)    E-Commerce.

3.4)    Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

3.5)    E-Laws and regulations.

3.6)    Content development (portals).

3.7)    ICT related projects (Tele-centers, Portals or Country Development Gateways).

3.8)    Rural strategies.

 

Comments and Conclusions of the Group One:

1)  The E-Readiness concept is defined as the level of preparation of a country to receive and adopt the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It’s not just the use of information, but the most important part of this concept is to focus on the human resource side. This means the intelligent use of the ICT through training and how the persons can make use and take advantage of these technologies.

2)  It is important to know the E-Readiness level of a country through an E-Readiness study. It is important to keep up to date statistics, but the most important part is to know what to do next. Future actions with important impact in the country’s ICT development and sustainable development it’s what really counts.

3)  Each country must adapt or change the E-Readiness Self-Assessment study to its own needs and unique characteristics. That is because each country is different and there is not a magic formula that will work for all the developing countries.

4)  It is important to implement a strategic ICT plan for each country and then for the whole region. It is important to follow up every action and issues stated in such a plan. NAM CSSTC can help to organize regional workshops on how to make this plan.

5)  NAM CSSTC should help NAM member countries on how they should implement an E-Readiness study using the methodology proposed in the manuals. They have to use their focal points in order to start a mutual technical cooperation between countries.

6)  NAM CSSTC can help developing countries get assistance, training or technical cooperation from NAM member countries themselves and also from developed countries when required.

7)  To promote research and development over ICT issues on developing countries in order to not depend upon existing developed countries technologies and methodologies.

8)  Use the Internet to have interactive online workshops and seminars. Start to make use of existing technologies (like Internet, video conferences, virtual training programs) to have more interaction between NAM member countries. NAM CSSTC can help with this issue and to reduce substantially any costs and boundaries related on having meetings through their networking system.

9)  The importance of identifying focal points in each country and to establish regional NAM offices to monitor all the processes and actions taken by the NAM member countries.

10) To promote the participation or creation of the appropriate institutions, guided by the government, to be responsible of making the E-Readiness study and the follow up actions, including the national ICT plan.

11) The workshop recognizes the importance of an expert database in different sectors for NAM member countries. But NAM CSSTC should explain more how to access the expert database and how each country can implement its own database in order to interconnect them all in the near future.

12)The workshop recognized the importance of E-Leadership and the need for E-Laws for sustainable ICT development in each country.

13) About E-Leadership, the need to recognize leaders and leader institutions from different sectors is very important. Through very important projects, like Tele-centers, national web portals or telecommunications regulations we can recognize and identify E-Leadership practices. Also integrated actions and activities in order to avoid duplicity of efforts within the country and the region. Even the importance to coordinate efforts in the region is important in order to obtain benefits for all interested countries.

14) The group recognizes the need for education and training programs as a very important action in any ICT plan for the countries (especially for small and medium enterprises). But now with the use of new technologies, the costs of training programs can be lowered in a substantial way for any training program, especially high education programs. The need to include IT training courses to different education level programs is part of this information and knowledge society we live in.

15) About content development, there is a need for coordinated and integrated efforts in order to obtain what the country needs. The problem of developing countries is that they start well, but for different reasons (employment instability for example) the projects start to fade or even disappear because of the difficulty to maintain long term programs, especially in Government projects. The main problem in many countries is how to get updated information and how to maintain up to date information available.

16) The E-Commerce is now the global tendency to trade good and services, especially over the Internet. But the need for regulations and laws for these kinds of transactions must be taken into consideration in the short term. To aware the population of the importance of E-Commerce is a must in order to improve the competitiveness of any country. The importance of recognizing the legal value of an electronic document must be also a major concern.

17) The cooperation between countries must be a priority in order to compete with developed countries. Regional experiences and efforts must be considered in order to achieve sustainable development in each country and the region itself. That should be the way to enter a globalized world in an easier way.

 

Comments and Conclusions of the Group Two

1)  “E-Readiness” can be defined as the diagnosis of a country, region or continent on how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are installed, adopted and being used. Information will flow through one or many universal and organized platforms (Internet, TV, radios, telephones for example), but respecting the information identity.

2)  NAM CSSTC can explain or assess countries on how to implement an E-Readiness study in their respective countries using the manuals and methodology they propose (now in English and Spanish) as a start basis or guide.

3)  Democratize the access to information for all citizens must be a priority for any country. The need to strengthen and improve traditional and non traditional information sources and diffusers in order to achieve that. Latin America and the Caribbean countries don’t have an appropriate culture of having libraries or reading books. So with the Internet or any other media, the Information sources should improve, update and simplify the way they publish information to be available for any citizen.

4)  To prepare education and training programs promoting the benefits of ICT at different levels.  Information is important for everyone, so training programs on how those countries, groups or persons can start using and getting the benefits of ICT is a key issue. So appropriate regional and rural strategies are needed in order to achieve these benefits.

5)  With an E-Readiness study, the society can know for sure the level of preparation of the country. For some countries in early stages, infrastructure should be one of the priorities. But the need for accurate figures and statistics in order to know what to do next is very important.

6)  Success stories and experiences from other countries are the key to start mutual cooperation programs among developing countries.

7)  Regional efforts are very important, but it must first start within each particular country and then extend to a regional level. About the rural strategies, in Guatemala for example there are 22 different native languages in the rural areas that represent a considerable percentage of the total population. The need to implement local strategies is a key factor in order to obtain what the country needs: National Identity. So, first goes local integration within the country and then regional integration efforts.

8)  The recognition of NAM CSSTC activities as an integrator and promoter of cooperation between NAM member countries in development efforts such as: Poverty reduction, small and medium enterprises (SME) development and ICT development.

 

Comments and Conclusions of the Group Three:

1)  “E-Readiness” can only be conceived in a conceptual frame. E-Readiness can be defined as a conceptual category of a very important continuous process for decision making of the public and private sectors. It is implicit or must be incorporated in each society, because it is the natural course of things and tendencies around the world. That’s explained like that because ICT, whether you like it or not, is related to all human lives in a direct or indirect way.

2)  ICT development is important, but before ICT there are certain issues that must be attended first like education, labor, food, housing, etc. in order to obtain the appropriate and necessary benefits from it. The inequity among persons, groups and countries will always exist. But this workshop is a clear example that besides some national priorities already mentioned, ICT development must be considered and should not be left aside in order to achieve a substantial reduction of the existing digital divide and can be a tool to fight against poverty.

3)  A national statistics institute or related public institution should be involved in the implementation and follow up (updates) of the E-Readiness study of a country.

4)  About content development is a very difficult task. Anything can be published over the Internet. But as a Latin American region the focus should be to concentrate on good Spanish contents and then think about putting the contents in a different language. The structure of the contents is also a very important issue and the different sectors should standardize some common issues among the region in order to improve content development in the next few years.

5)  An E-Readiness study is very valuable not only for the Government, but for all society in a certain country. Private sector is one of the most interested parties to obtain such public information to establish good marketing and profitable activities that will benefit not only them, but the society itself. The focus should be on how SMEs can get benefits from ICT development through an E-Readiness study.

6)  The first priority of all activities is education and training.

7)  E-Leadership is a new concept, but can be understood as some public, private or individual party that is interested in promoting ICT development in a country to obtain direct or indirect benefits from it.

8)  E-Readiness projects and rural strategies must be very important issues in any country. It is important for research activities and of course for planning activities. E-Readiness projects or studies will be used for decision making, but the lack of information in the Latin American and Caribbean region makes it very difficult to implement.

9)  A second regional workshop or seminar should be organized. But this next meeting should focus on public policies and leadership: E-Government or even E-Governance. There should be also more participation of other Latin American Countries, especially those with more advance levels of ICT development like Mexico or Brazil. Even with the participation of developed countries like USA or Japan to hear about their own experiences.

 

Final Comments and Conclusions:

The final comments and conclusions were given by Mr. Enrique Cossich, IT director of the Finance Ministry and President of the IT Commission of the Science and Technology Council (CONCYT) of the Republic of Guatemala.

1)  The need to define clear lines of action and concrete activities (working plans) among the Latin American and the Caribbean countries must be the first step towards ICT development.

2)  E-Readiness can be defined as a tool for decision making.

3)  A national statistics public institution or similar should be in charge of updating all necessary information in an E-Readiness study. The appropriate indicators defined by each country should be constantly monitored by the appropriate public or private sector parties in order to achieve the appropriate levels of development.

4)  Regional efforts must be a priority, especially for Latin American and Caribbean countries. That’s why cooperation among our countries should flow, especially those with some kind of advantage in ICT issues and here is where NAM CSSTC can help with this important task.

5)  Content development structures must be defined to improve the quality of information published, especially over the Internet. Document digitalization should be a priority in every sense and regional strategies must be developed.