Guyana will fall behind if youths not involved in ICT – IDB

…as Govt promises full digitalisation by 2020

Government has committed to offering 200 services online to citizens as part of its ICT manifesto promises, while the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is urging more inclusionary policies for youth to advance the sector.
At an IDB-sponsored training summit at the Marriott Hotel on Friday, IDB Regional Head Therese Turner-Jones, in addressing the participants, urged Government to avail itself of youth innovators.
It has been pointed out that youths have led the data revolution in other countries, and those countries have gone on to achieve some form of economic prosperity. As such, transforming the sector can be expedited by more involvement of youths.
“We have more young people today than we (will) have in, say, 2030… young people are thought to be the agents of change. We also know that young people are much more wired to their technology than, say, those over 60. So I think

there’s a lot of promise in (them),” Turner-Jones pointed out. Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes also addressed stakeholders. According to Hughes, ordinary citizens and businesses would, by 2020, be able to access public services online.
“So imagine your driver’s licence application (or) that application for a TIN number; all these services can be done online, and therefore we have to start heading in that direction… And the private sector, you are going to be left behind also if you continue to do this the old way,” she related, as she stressed that the private sector should therefore avail itself of technological opportunities to improve customer service.
Meanwhile, IDB Country Representative Sophie Makonnen stressed the need for countries to keep up to date with advancing technologies. With new technology, Makonnen noted, there are new ways to solve old problems, such as with health care.
A few days ago, stakeholders were introduced to the concept of exponential technologies (ET) and their importance in developing small economies like Guyana’s.
A presentation was made by Dr Nicholas Haan, the Track Chair and Vice President of Impact at Singularity University (SU). SU is a Silicon Valley think-tank that offers educational programmes and serves as a business incubator.
During his presentation, Dr Haan pointed out that, in recent years, there have been major technological transformations which have created opportunities for agencies to rethink the way they serve people.
“Humanity is currently witnessing, at this very time, a major transformation never ever seen before; a transformation into a digital era where every single one of our social systems – our food system, our energy system, our health system, our government system, etc – every single one of those is being transformed by technology and other global trends.
“This creates incredible opportunities if you’re leading a corporation or if you’re an entrepreneur, and it creates incredible opportunities for Governments around the world to rethink the way to best serve the populace,” Dr Haan posited.
He went on to talk about how exponential technology has advanced and developed over recent years to create new concepts such as artificial intelligence programmes that operate in real time with no human control and 3D printing. IDB’s Senior Specialist on State Modernisation, Mariko Russell, had said that the idea behind hosting this presentation was to highlight how accessible and beneficial exponential technologies can be for local enterprises.