Barbados Today published an article titled Government ramps up public sector transformation on November 14,2020.
Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney addressed the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) on a digital conference under the theme, Executive Mindset: Evolved Thinking for Business Leaders to provide an update on the government’s process of digitisation.
Below are some key points:
- The government has set up a special bureau to further the digital transformation of the public sector. Assisted by their Estonia counterpart whom constructed an e-service platform for the secure exchange of information between government departments in Barbados. The execution of the system was drastically affected by the covid-19 pandemic but was promised to be implemented by June of 2021.
- Several government services are now accessible online and the rest will follow suite shortly. Fifty-one professionals who require certification or licences are now able to submit applications online and over 100 forms for various business processes with the government has been digitized. Since introduced more than two months ago 1,500 people have used the online drivers licence renewal service.
- The government was consulting with various groups while using a citizen-centric approach about the technology. A telecommunications group was created to help with the modernization of legislation and a public-private sector cyber security group to strengthening their ability to protect and respond to cyber threats. Another group was created to ensure that the digital identification card which will be used for several services has some special features.
- The government conducted a survey amongst themselves about assessing information and communications technology gaps and how businesses could improve and adapt. They recommend companies to embrace new technology and other platforms as there are opportunities associated with e-commerce. Recommended by experts they also conducted a survey to assess consumer behaviour and the adoption of online services.
Reference: barbadostoday
Contributed by Sassania Hibbert from Jamaica. Sassania is a member of our Women in InfoSec Caribbean (WISC) initiative on Discord. WISC is a non-profit initiative supporting Caribbean women and girls to develop a career in Information Security.
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