Vanuatu National Information and Communication Technology Policy

Definitions of Data:

N/A

Main Focus of Document:

Focuses on the development of ICT for the betterment of the people and the development of the country

Target Beneficiaries or Sectors:

citizens

Key Elements:

To ensure that ICT is developed accordingly, the government has set priority areas which include: access to ICT education, access to ICT infrastructure devices and e-government. It is hoped that the development of ICT will ensure social and economic development for the country.

The Government has identified the following priorities for this National ICT Policy

1. Access to ICTs in Education: Providing educational institutions with access to ICT infrastructure and related services (especially, the Internet) and equipment adequate to support the educational process, providing students with access to ICT devices, as well as providing appropriate ICT-based educational content.

2. Access to ICT Infrastructure and Devices: Enhancing general access to as well as availability and affordability of the reliable ICT infrastructure (including, wireless voice, voice-related services, and the Internet, but also radio), related services and devices, with an emphasis on demand side measures, enhancing overall resiliency of the national infrastructure, and lowering costs of services and devices as they are delivered to end-users.

3. E-Government: Enhancing effective and cost-efficient use of ICTs (including wireless communications) in government operations, in particular in terms of internal administration; and promoting ICT-enabled interaction between the government and other stakeholders, including citizens

4. Integration of ICT into Sectoral Policies: Recognising the enabling and transforming potential of ICT for every sector and policy area, in particular such key areas as education, health, productive sectors, transport (especially maritime), trade and attraction of foreign investment, gender equality, social equity, democratic participation, preservation and promotion of local culture (including arts), protection of environment as well as disaster management; and achieving a strong direction towards realising such potential through the development and subsequent implementation of appropriate sectoral policies.

5. Building Trust (Mitigating Risks and Threats related to the ICT Development): Recognizing that alongside numerous benefits, ICT also brings various dangers, including an exposure to harmful information, new avenues for criminals, including fraudulent activities; new threats for protection of confidential information and important infrastructure; as well as new risks of disruption of social and economic life; and ensuring that those dangers are properly addressed and managed, in particular through appropriate preparedness, education and awareness building. Individual privacy should be maintained throughout.

6. Locally Relevant Content: Increasing availability of locally relevant sustainably supported content, especially by making global content accessible in local languages.

7. Capacity Building: Enhancing skills necessary to utilize and develop ICTs, especially in the public service.

8. Platform for Multi-Stakeholder and Multi-Sector Coordination and Collaboration: Recognizing that any pre-established policy cannot foresee every initiative that could benefit the development of the ICT sector, neither any one central agency can envisage and direct all of them; and therefore setting up a platform for expertise, knowledge and skills to be shared among various stakeholders and sectors, duplications to be eliminated and potential synergies exploited, thereby enabling a substantially self-organizing (although enabled and coordinated) ICT development process.

The government will also offer its facilities, infrastructure as well as associated services for the use, on a wholesale basis, by the private sector subject to demand and technical feasibility. It will also continue and enter into new reciprocal mutually beneficial arrangements aimed to strengthen the national infrastructure, such as exchanging redundant links to enhance resiliency of telecommunications networks. The government will engage into, and implement, such arrangements in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

Government services will be delivered in a much more effective, transparent and efficient way and will be made much more accessible to residents and businesses across Vanuatu, including in rural areas. Furthermore, E-Government services will strengthen demand for ICT tools and services in general, by providing a cost efficient way to satisfy specific day-to-day needs of residents and businesses.