Initiatives Being Implemented for Digital Society

Chief Executive Officer at eGov Jamaica Limited, Maurice Barnes, has highlighted various initiatives being implemented towards Jamaica’s thrust of becoming a digital society.

He informed that a major development to be undertaken is the merger of eGov Jamaica Limited and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Jamaica to form the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Authority, with primary responsibility for the ICT governance framework.

Addressing a plenary session at the just-concluded Jamaica Investment Forum (JIF) 2018 held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, Mr. Barnes explained that the idea is to have an Authority to guide operations, with the establishment of a centralised ICT funding model and GovNet.

“GovNet is a secure, wide area network infrastructure that will interconnect government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to facilitate shared services,” the CEO noted, adding that the centralised data centre will include a consolidated voice communication system (Gov-Talk), a consolidated email system (Gov-Email); and Gov-Internet.

He informed that infrastructure is being put in place for a government data exchange platform, which will facilitate secure and seamless transfer of data and information between government entities and also for the private sector.

“There will also be the national identification system (NIDS), which will uniquely identify every citizen and resident and allow for them to utilise this facility in the form of an electronic ID or electronic signature to be able to access services online,” Mr. Barnes pointed out.

He noted that with the emergence of the various facilities and services, citizens will then be able to benefit from other offerings, such as e-taxes, e-trade, online company registration and e-voting.

“In terms of bridging the digital divide and building on the human capital, the Government offers free data access to all government-owned websites and has made available over 300 community access points throughout the country,” he highlighted.

eGov is the entity responsible for implementing ICT projects across MDAs of the Government.