33 / 98
33
3
Operations
“Taiwanese cooperation is really
going to revolutionize the way our
government deals with ICT and our
people interact with the government.”
That’s the view of Senator Camillo
Go n s a l v e s a s h e s u r v e y s t h e
TaiwanICDF’s ICT Technical Cooperation
Project and discusses plans for future
cooperation in e-government in his
native St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
speaking during a visit to TaiwanICDF
headquarters at the start of a weeklong
visit to Taiwan in December.
Senator Gonsalves is directly
responsible for the promotion and
development of his country’s ICT sector,
and for the government’s Information
Technology Services Division (ITSD),
whose pe r sonne l have wo r ked
alongside the TaiwanICDF since the
project began in 2011.
The crown jewel and culminating
feature of the initiative was the
establishment of the SVG E-Government
Centre, the nation’s hub for ICT.
“The ‘before Taiwan’ story is that we
were antiquated; a lot of work was being
done by this or that individual ministry
or individual department, but there was
no coordination among them,” Senator
Gonsalves says. “Very often different
systems were being used. Very often the
skillsets from one department to another
were vastly different, and there was no
single space or place for training and
coordination to occur.
“Taiwan first helped us with the
physical space, of creating for us an area
for e-governance training, a physical
facility,” Senator Gonsalves continues.
“They’ve helped us to equip it, so that
provided an essential gathering space
for government professionals to go to,
to learn how to use equipment and to
coordinate our own ICT development.
They’ve also provided a number of
trainers that are also doing excellent
work in teaching Vincentians – not only
within the government but also within
the private sector – on the proper uses
of the technology, and they’ve provided
a great amount of software that has also
helped facilitate the training process.”
Operating Under Local Ownership
Thanks to Significant Capacity
Building Efforts
Nowadays, the center’s own ICT
specialists play host to training courses
designed to support the work of
government personnel from across
the country, and are also working on
the creation of a number of systems
and platforms designed to streamline
government operations. But as Senator
Gonsalves explains, the smooth
management of the center under local
ownership has come about only thanks
to significant capacity building efforts
on the part of the TaiwanICDF and the
ITSD.
“One of the great things about ICDF
cooperation and the cooperation in
this particular space is that it’s all very
sustainable,” he says. “One of the
things that they have done, when they
first came in, was to help us to prepare
ourselves to run it ourselves. They have
reached a level of comfort and our own
citizens now have a level of comfort with
the technology and its potential that [the
TaiwanICDF has] taken a step back.
They’re still there to the extent that we
need them, but thus far it’s been run
entirely by local talent, and we’re very
proud of that.”
With the center having been officially
opened in May 2013, the early stages of
a new project tentatively referred to as
the “Electronic Document and Records
Management System Project” began to
take shape through 2014.
Identified and raised by the
gover nment of St. Vincent and
the Grenadines, the initiative will
involve the installation of a cross-
government network of infrastructure
and applications capable of handling
government documents and records in
a standard and secure electronic format.
“It’s not necessarily the sexiest
project, but it’s certainly a project that
will have sexy results, because people
will feel better about the way in which
they are interacting with the government,
and the government itself will do its
business much more efficiently,” Senator
Gonsalves says.
With this further cooperation in the
pipeline, Senator Gonsalves says that
he is very happy with how his country’s
ICT revolution is progressing.
“What we have, we believe, are
very resourceful, creative people that
are willing to learn, and if given the
opportunity can be very successful.
Taiwan and the ICDF have done a
great deal in helping us to realize that
potential, and people are very eager to
assist, very eager to learn, and, if I may
say so, are doing very well in the new
roles that Taiwan has prepared them for.”
Senator Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Foreign Trade, Commerce and Information
Technology, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Present, Future Cooperation in ICT
Developing E-Government, Realizing
Local Potential in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines
Interview
1
