Antigua & Barbuda to acquire Commonwealth ICT Expert
Monday March 20 2006
Minister responsible for Information Technology, Dr. Edmond Mansoor, has announced that the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat has agreed to assign an ICT expert to Antigua & Barbuda for two years.
Dr. Mansoor outlined that the ICT expert will assist the government in creating a new ICT landscape and will be responsible for conducting national surveys to determine e-readiness usage, coordinate cross functional government projects, to bridge the digital divide, and also provide specialised training.
The information minister further pointed out that the expert will also assist government with developing and monitoring ICT awareness communication plans and provide project development, systems management and support services to the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Telecommunications.
“The government is committed to ensuring that we develop a fully digital society that is exposed to the latest technology and we are delighted that the Commonwealth Secretariat will be providing assistance in ensuring that we bridge the digital divide in our nation,” the minister noted.
He said the government’s information technology initiatives have already resulted in an expanded Information Technology (IT) Centre, with added human resource in network engineering, software development, e-commerce, network design, and project management.
Dr. Mansoor noted that more than 50 per cent of the government’s operations already have an electronic component with a full thrust towards e-government; rapid expansion of the government’s wide area network and the new parliament building will be fully wired into today’s technology including wireless high-speed Internet access.
In addition, Minister Mansoor stated over 1,000 computers will be deployed within the operations of central government over the next 18 months and the government will be developing a back-up (redundancy) centre to the present IT Centre in keeping with international trends. He said the redundancy centre is a major commitment on the part of the government.
The government’s ICT agenda has already resulted in Antigua & Barbuda being branded the “ICT City of the Caribbean” by the Commonwealth Secretariat regional office.
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