21 / 106
Operations
21
The biennial UN E-Government
Survey points out that online service in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)
lags behind other Caribbean island
countries, and the poorly developed
system makes it impossible for the
public to gain access to government
information through a convenient
network.
The St. Vincent Information
Technology Service Department
(ITSD), a division under the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade
and Commerce and Information
Technology, is primarily responsible
for planning the country's ICT
blueprint and training associated
personnel. However, the department
lacks both hardware and human
resources and is incapable of
developing a comprehensive,
systematic and structured technology.
For this reason, SVG expressed
the nation’s need to plan an SVG
E-Government Center by drawing on
Taiwan’s very successful experience
in this area, and, at the same time,
to arrange relevant training courses
and human resource development to
narrow the country's digital divide.
Establishing an SVG
E-Government Center as an
Important Base for Capacity
Building
To assist the country in creating
an e-government development
strategy plan, we planned the
SVG E-Government Center as the
focal point for the development of
e-government. In addition, we will
complete a comprehensive report on
the nation’s government
network service survey
and overall development
p l an o f a na t i ona l
e-government strategy,
which will be submitted
to the government as a
blueprint for the future
ICT development in the
country. The report will
include surveys on the
current status of network services and
ICT in SVG, as well as an appraisal
and analysis of the government
network framework.
Since the project’s implementation
in January 2011, the establishment
of a National ICT Center has been
completed and the International
Information Security Standard
(ISO27001: 2013) has been achieved.
Standard procedures and control
mechanisms for workflow have been
set up to reduce operational error
rates.
The project also assisted in setting
up e-government systems such
as an "SVG Government System
Single Sign-on Service Platform,"
"SVG G-Cloud: Cloud Storage
Service," "E-government Center
Asset Management System," "SVG
Government e-Archiving System,"
and an "SVG Government National/
Intranet Portal." This will significantly
i n c r e a s e t h e g o v e r nme n t ' s
information transparency and
administrative efficiency. In personnel
training, we conducted courses on
software such as Java, CCNA, Linux,
PHP, as well as information security,
greatly enhancing the professional
c o m p e t e n c e o f
SVG technicians in
the information and
communications field.
As the initial step
i n S t . V i ncen t and
t h e G r e n a d i n e s ’
d e v e l o p m e n t o f
e - gove r nmen t , t he
o u t c o m e s o f t h i s
project in every area
have thus far received enthusiastic
approval of our partner country.
Under the development strategy
of the ICT center, we anticipate
that this base can be expanded to
other government departments so
that information of all government
agencies and offices can be
i n t eg r a t ed and t r ansmi ss i on
improved, thereby continuing to
raise overall government information
efficiency.
200
People receiving
professional education
training annually
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
ICT Technical Cooperation Project
1
Case Study