National ICT Plan ICT Blueprint 2018-2022

Definitions of Data:

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Main Focus of Document:

Provides a five-year national plan for the development of ICT from 2018 to 2022

Target Beneficiaries or Sectors:

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Key Elements:

By 2022, Trinidad and Tobago will achieve the vision of empowered people, competitive businesses, transformational government through ICT. This is focused on achieving the following:
Empowered People Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago:

• have ubiquitous access to ICT;
• are connected to broadband infrastructure which provides a variety of services that are affordable, of high quality, safe, and secure;
• are confident and skilled in the use of ICTS; and
• are deriving high value from the use of ICT, benefiting themselves and society.

Competitive Business Businesses in Trinidad and Tobago:

• are supported by robust and secure infrastructure;
• are enabled by the requisite legislative framework;
• are supported by a technologically skilled workforce; and
• are continuously aspiring to innovate in their products, processes, and operations.

Transformational Government Ministries and Agencies in Trinidad and Tobago:

• are deploying ICTs to transform operations to a state where digital becomes default, yielding time and cost savings;
• are delivering services that are simple, fast, secure and end-to-end; and
• are achieving efficiencies within and across entities through data analytics, shared platforms, and other resources that support delivering better with less.

Strategic Thrusts
To support the National Development Goals, a comprehensive, strategic framework has been developed. It is organised into five Strategic Thrusts, which form the critical components needed to achieve the national ICT vision:

1. Improving Connectivity - Advancing the deployment of ICT infrastructure to support securely connected people, businesses, and government Improving Connectivity focuses on national infrastructure development (including addressing gaps in the government’s telecommunications grid), creating access and service ubiquity, fostering usage, and maintaining an effective regulatory environment. A key aim of this Thrust is to facilitate and incentivise private sector investment and market actors to advance the national ICT infrastructure.

2. Increasing Human Capacity - Enhancing digital literacy and developing the skills to enable productivity and innovation. Increasing Human Capacity focuses on enhancing digital literacy and developing the skills to enable productivity and innovation within an e-ready society. Empowering citizens with ICT skills and competencies and growing awareness of ICTs for doing things better, doing things differently, and doing new things, in order to increase productivity, create new lifestyles and drive success in all forms of enterprise.

3. Digital Government - Ensuring the use of ICT to transform the delivery of public goods and services and strengthen institutional capacity. Digital Government focuses on working as an integrated government with well-governed processes and quality outcomes directed at improving operational efficiency and customer service satisfaction. An integral part of this will be the strengthening of public institutions with staff having increased ICT capacity and enhanced capability.

4. Fostering Economic Development Creating an environment for an innovative, entrepreneurial, and vibrant ICT Sector. Fostering Economic Development focuses on building a pro e-enterprise environment within Trinidad and Tobago. Important elements of this Thrust are increasing e-business and e-commerce adoption both within the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) realms, and facilitating competitive trade along with driving effective import and export mechanisms.

5. Advancing the Environment for Societal Benefit - Managing the use of ICT to minimise possible damage to the natural environment of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Valuing the environment focuses on protecting, and in some cases maintaining and improving, the capacity of the environment to serve successive generations. For ICT, this means managing its use and disposal and mitigating any negative environmental impacts. For ICT deployment, this means using technology as an enabler to change the way government and businesses operate in providing services and how best they can realise efficiency while protecting the environment through compliance with standards and best practices.

Supporting Ecosystem A conducive ecosystem is required to support and enable successful implementation of the Plan. The key components of this ecosystem are discussed below.

Enterprise Architecture: Effective ICT planning will provide the roadmap through which the necessary infrastructure, systems, and policies can be implemented to support current and future business needs. A government-wide Enterprise Architecture (EA) development exercise is a systematic way to accomplish this. An EA will serve as a framework for designing, planning and approving the build out of the government’s ICT infrastructure for physical connectivity, shared platforms and processing systems that will enable the delivery of government services internally and externally. A supporting set of standards and guidelines are combined to ensure the reliability and integrity of the cross-ministry enterprise. Moreover, international interconnectivity will be a key consideration, enabling interface with specialised entities. Additionally, upfront planning with respect to demand aggregation for ICT goods and services would produce economies of scale and streamline procurement.

Enhancing ICT Infrastructure The following programmes will be implemented, among others: Key infrastructure programmes of private sector actors for, inter alia, the establishment of a broadband service provider network in Trinidad and Tobago over the five year period, 2018-2022.

• Infrastructure programmes in the Public Sector: Enhancing the GovNeTT backbone will facilitate the build out of the government’s eServices platform, thus providing multi-channel access to online services. In Tobago, 32 sites of the THA are connected to GovNeTT and it is anticipated that full connectivity of the entire THA will be achieved by 2019. Once completed, eServices will be delivered over GovNeTT to citizens and residents in Tobago.
• Universal Service projects, in the short to medium term, to support ubiquitous broadband development, closing the access gap, provision of assistive technologies to persons with disabilities and the conduct of a digital divide survey every 3-5 years.
• Deployment of free public WiFi coverage at locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
• Periodic review of the Spectrum Management Framework to include considerations for contemporary and future policies to inform the efficient and effective management of the national spectrum resource.

Modernising the Legal and Regulatory Framework Government is committed to establishing an enabling environment for ICT, a key component of which is the e-Legislative Agenda. This Agenda provides for the elaboration and delivery of a body of policies, harmonised legislation and regulations that underpin the electronic delivery of products and services by Government (Digital Government) and the electronic facilitation of business processes (e-Business), including the electronic sale and procurement of goods and services (e-Commerce). Over the next five years, the government will remain focused on ensuring the full proclamation of critical pieces of eLegislation and instituting the related supporting regulations, inclusive of the following:

• The Electronic Transactions Act (ETA) - The Data Protection Act - Electronic Funds Transfer Regulations

Digital Government The use of digital technologies to create public value in an interconnected role of governments’ modernisation policies and initiatives. It is dependent on government’s modernisation ecosystem comprised of government actors, non-governmental organisations, businesses, citizens’ associations and individuals which supports the production of and access to data, services and content through interactions with government. Desired Outcome: Digital government is about putting people first and creating public value for the benefit of society, which includes the following:

• goods or services that satisfy the desires of citizens, residents and business;
• public sector activity that meet citizen expectations of justice, fairness, efficiency and effectiveness;
• citizen-centric modernised, productive public institutions that reflect citizens’ desires and preferences;
• fairness and efficiency of distribution of goods and services;
• accountability and transparency in the use of resources to accomplish public purposes;
• ICT is employed to support the best efforts in transparency, accountability, value for money and integrity in all relevant government affairs and operations; and
• agility in innovation and adaptability to changing preferences and demands.