There should be no doubt that civil servants can handle the change-over to E-government. They have already demonstrated their expertise with the well-run Land and Companies Registries, Customs and Immigration departments which have become models for other countries in the region, even using our own officials—along with our models—to bring about some good order in other territories.
Initiating E-governing for many of the administration’s archaic applications processes certainly could and should also initiate the processes required to address the mandate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that all Government accounts need to be in good order, which we all know is not now the case.
The change-over will be a boon to the economy on many different fronts: First of all, the net result will be the reduction in manual labour -- a grudge that has been harbored for years that if Government was to computerize too many functions, then there would be no need for as many civil servants. If ever there was an appropriate time, however, in the history of these Islands to downsize the Civil Service, is it not now?
Perhaps just as important, if not more so, is that the Government’s move to use currently available advanced technology to streamline its functions which will open doors to even more technological advances, setting the stage perhaps for research and development opportunities that heretofore were the bailiwick of only highly developed nations. The Government could be initiating the first steps toward Cayman becoming the Simi Valley of the Caribbean.
We already have the young, computer-savvy adults, many of whom are now looking for employment, who will flock to these types of openings for data entry, programming, call centres and just about anything related to information technology, and we also have the benefit of two colleges here ready to offer even more advanced training.
Not to be overlooked are the savings in time, in automobile traffic on our roadways, the congestion in downtown parking lots, the reduction in air pollution simply by making various Government applications available to the public online, who will welcome booting up their computers instead of starting their car engines to trek to government offices to deal with informational and regulatory matters.
Along with the country’s move into the technological age comes the need for benefactor(s) to initiate “a computer in every child’s backpack,” not only for their personal access to educational material and home-study courses (for parents, too), but to complete the paradigm shift required of the next generation to benefit fully from internet access to the rest of the world and to inspire technological innovation.
To bolster and grow this planned E-economic move by Government, we again urge the lifting of customs duty from computers and peripherals, the tools which will become the backbone of good government, of all business conducted here, and the quite-necessary component for the growth of the IT industry as a whole. It is a dichotomy that visitors enjoy duty-free shopping here because of lower prices since there is no import tax on these goods; the Government should now do something for its own.
We have had one foot firmly planted in the 20th century, and one foot rather timidly stepping into the 21st century. It is time now to step boldly with both feet into the 21st century, and in the process, the Cayman Islands will be at the forefront of the technological age in the Caribbean, which is where we should be.
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Quelle/Source: Cayman Net News, 21.06.2010
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