By Nosihle Shelembe
Ekurhuleni – A National ICT Forum has been launched to devise strategies to grow the ICT sector for the benefit of the economy.
Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Dr Siyabonga Cwele, said the ICT sector contributes no less than six percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“It is important that the size of this contribution is increased so that we create jobs and improve national wealth. We all have a role to play but our sector must play an even greater role in achieving five percent growth by 2020,” Minister Cwele said on Friday, in Ekurhuleni.
The forum seeks to bring together government, labour, civil society and business to discuss critical sector issues that can facilitate the acceleration of socio-economic development.
“An economic chamber has been established for the forum and will engage on how to grow the ICT sector through the development of scarce ICT skills, the localisation of manufacturing of ICT hardware such as smart phones and tablets and the transformation of the ICT sector’s ownership and control to reflect national demographics through ICT SMME development,” Minister Cwele said.
The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services has budgeted under a million rand for this financial year towards supporting the activities of the forum.
“We are confident that this platform will not be a talk shop as our operational plan will ensure that stakeholders play a meaningful role in the implementation of our ICT policy,” Minister Cwele said.
He said the governance and security chamber will facilitate dialogue on how best to promote the use of ICT’s for improving the quality of life of ordinary South Africans as cybercrimes were on the rise.
“The chamber will engage on the promotion of access to information, policies around open government data, privacy provisions, consumer protection and cybersecurity,” Minister Cwele said.
An ICT’s disability chamber has been formulated to engage on how ICT policy can address the needs of marginalised groups such as African women in rural areas, the disabled and elderly.
“The objective of our government is to produce an inclusive ‘information society’ where there is a fair and equitable participation of all citizens is the use of ICT’s and in line with the objectives of equal society that is envisaged by the Freedom Charter,” Minister Cwele said.
The ICT forum is intended to complement existing forums such as the Broadband Advisory Council and the ICT Review Panel.
“For us to enter the ICT revolution we require all our soldiers. We need to mobilise the greater number and diversity of stakeholders in order to push from all fronts,” he said.
The forum will be chaired by Minister Cwele alongside the alternate chair Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Prof. Hlengiwe Mkhize.
Minister Cwele announced the interim chairs of the different chambers.
He said these individuals will be instrumental in kick starting the process to operationalise the forum and work on a draft work plan for adoption. The chairs are as follows:
- economic chamber – Chose Choeu
- social chamber – Loren Braithwaite-Kabosha
- governance and security chamber – Tony Parry
- ICTs and disability chamber – Dr. Praveena Sukrash-Aly
Minister Cwele said senior officials from the department have been delegated to represent the voice of the department in the chambers during policy discussions and work done towards ensuring that policy is implemented. They include:
- Economic Chamber – Themba Phiri
- Social Chamber – Nonkqubela Jordaan
- Governance and Security Chamber – Tinyiko Ngobeni
- ICTs and Disability Chamber – Petronella Linders
He said a social chamber had been established in the forum to deal with e-strategy, particularly e-government which is a critical area of service delivery that will directly promote socio-economic development and aggregate the demand of ICT services.
“This chamber will speak to the coordination of programmes for the implementation of e-health, e-education, e-agriculture and e-justice just to name a few,” Minister Cwele said. – SAnews.gov.za
