WHO'S TRACKING DIGITAL OUR PATH
WE must not just pay lip service to technology transformation. What will it take to realise our dreams of creating the advancement that we want to see as a digital society? We aspire to national transformation in this digital era, and many of the goals we seek to achieve are based on what we’ve observed in other countries.
Some of the countries listed include Estonia, India, Israel, Singapore and Costa Rica, to name a few. These countries are selected for varying reasons, for example, society’s cultural advancement in embracing technology, the Government’s ability to evolve into e-government, the ability to provide digital access for external investment opportunities, having a national ID system, the number of graduates per year from technology-related programmes and more. These fundamental elements are a great way for developing a plan to shift us from a dream to reality. And yet, we must consider other factors such as leadership, not just who but also how.
The Government unveiled the Vision 2030 plan with four core pillars, each inspired by other thriving nations. Each of the pillars requires some level of technology but, as we would have shared previously, culture eats technology for breakfast, and we can easily say so does leadership. By simply looking into the progress on the plan that should be guiding the entire country’s digital transformation agenda (including the Government, policymakers, organisations and the wider society), we can see that things are not translating cohesively and measurably.
The website built to showcase the vision has not been updated since 2018, and the progress indicators are unavailable. Social media links to
Twitter and Facebook show little “actual” activity. Who is leading this effort spelt out in this vision? How are people being brought along and enrolled? Where is the alignment and cohesiveness to allow the different agencies, ministries and organisations to succeed? If it is happening, it is not evident in front of or behind the scenes. We need to do better. We must demand better.
Key questions that we should be asking at this time include: Where are we with our committed outcomes of eight years ago? Did we lose two years of traction due to the pandemic, and do we need to recast the strategy? Who are all the players working on the different pillars and getting funding for this work? Do we see results from the investments already made? Let’s hope that someone, somewhere, is asking these questions. We deserve to have clarity on the areas that need technology enablement and focused attention.
Citizens, don’t you want accountability? We need to move our acceptance of change beyond good PR, high-profile photo ops, and social media launches. To achieve great success across these four pillars in technology, we must demonstrate and demand the best outcomes. Otherwise, we will continue to aspire for greatness as we see it in others but never achieve the freedom that we all desire from the enslavement of corruption and crime that permeates our very core and stifles our ability to evolve. We all have a responsibility to the sustainable development of our country, and to be serious about achieving our technological transformation.