Launching the Malta Labour Party’s draft vision statement for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) yesterday, MLP leader Alfred Sant appealed to the public to get involved in the party’s wide-ranging public consultation document that outlines the way forward for developing Malta into an “intelligent society”.
The document contains over 50 proposals, which deal with creating an inclusive society that will benefit from the advantages of ICT, addressing the existing digital divide, fostering entrepreneurship and high value employment and promoting the global hub concept based on a resilient ICT infrastructure.
While acknowledging successes such as the government’s e-government services, Dr Sant also pointed out that other progress has been of a more superficial nature that has not trickled down to the citizens, as evidenced by the considerable digital divide still present in Malta.
Other areas where the country is falling short, as identified by the document, were in the areas of expenditure in research and development, and Malta’s below average rankings in the areas of employment in knowledge-intensive service sectors and in households with Internet access.
Among the proposals outlined are interesting suggestions such as persuading Maltese who have succeeded abroad in the ICT sector to invest in the local sector and develop Malta as a centre of ICT excellence – an area where, akin to foreign students travelling to Malta to study English, foreign students would come to Malta to study ICT.
Another interesting suggestion lies in the proposal to look into whether e-voting, which has been an active form of voting for many years in several countries, could be introduced in Malta.
Also addressing yesterday’s press conference, MLP information technology spokesperson Leo Brincat stressed that the government’s role in the area of ICT should be that of a catalyst, with the private sector being the real driving force behind Malta’s development as an ICT centre.
Labour’s document also proposes hiving off ICT as a separate ministerial portfolio, branding Malta as an “Intelligent Island” and empowering Malta’s ICT intellectual capital through employment and educational strategies.
The document also proposes the setting up of an on-line Maltese dictionary and thesaurus not tied to proprietary software and the promotion of the Maltese language in applications, operating systems and office automation software.
The document also seeks to promote a teleworking and e-work culture, the cultivation of e-tourism services and the creation of a specific ICT unit for Gozo.
The document promotes support for open standards specifications in its e-government framework and the publication of open sources policies and standards, while declaring its support for a level playing field between open source software and proprietary software in order to find the best value for money solutions.
The document also places emphasis on securing and protecting the national cyberspace where the government would team up with international organisations to draw up a national ICT security plan for the protection of critical infrastructures.
“A Labour government will transform Malta into an intelligent island with a knowledge-driven economy by developing ICT skills to create new opportunities and apply creative solutions,” the paper states. “It will recognise the importance of human capital and intellectual assets and will find ways and means of measuring and quantifying this very important resource.”
Public and constituted body consultations are expected to run until at least the beginning of November. The MLP’s full document can be found on the party’s website at www.mlp.org.mt.