THE PUBLIC and private sectors are seeing the fruit of the Ministry of Digital Transformation’s “breakthrough” as it marks its third year of existence on July 12.
And the ministry and the national digital transformation agenda are in "full implementation mode," the minister, Hassel Bacchus, boasted on July 1, during his feature presentation at the American Chamber of Commerce of TT’s (AmchamTT) Tech Hub islands Summit at Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain.
Guided by the government’s notion of “inclusion by design,” he said the public and private sectors and academia have all contributed to a growing ecosystem of tech and tech development professionals in TT.
“Collaboration and partnership are closely related to another of our fundamental principles of digital transformation,” Bacchus said.
“The notion of inclusion-by-design – our commitment that everyone in TT has access to appropriate and affordable digital technology, and has the capability and confidence to use the technology safely and effectively.”
The Digital Transformation Ministry has worked in tandem with the other ministries on several projects, including recently released mobile apps, including the Developers’ Hub (D’Hub).
“The principle of partnership is embedded in the approach adopted by the international community for ICT (information and communications technology) development from the start,” Bacchus said.
“When the UN convened the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)back in 2003, the entire WSIS process was based on building an equal partnership among government, the private sector, and civil society.
“This was also the approach adopted by us in TT, when developing Fast-Forward, our first national ICT Strategy."
He said the progress of D’Hub has been “extremely encouraging”: it surpassed 1,000 members in May.
D’Hub is designed to expand the range, utility and quality of the existing and new e-services provided to citizens and businesses. Bacchus said it was developed in a partnership between the government, the Inter-American Development Bank, the private sector, and academia.
D’Hub was launched in July 2022, as a “virtual ecosystem” designed to enable, host and support the open source/open standard mobile and web apps “of specific interest to the government, using government data,” Bacchus explained.
“We’re well on our way to having a local developers group build applications for use in the public sector (although) the private sector has been knocking on our doors to get things built and solved for them as well,” he said.
He lauded challengers of the recently concluded Developers Hub Challenge television series, saying the innovations demonstrated by the participating teams were a testament to local capabilities.
“The long-term vision for this ecosystem is the actualisation of the ministry’s motto – ‘made by TT for TT and the world.'”
The Developers’ Hub won the Inter-American Development Bank’s Innovation in the Public Sector award in December, 2023, and was named WSIS winner in May.
Bacchu
