The annual consultation workshops on the Digital Malta strategy were held last week at the Mita Data Centre and were attended by different stakeholders from government and business. The workshops, inviting citizens and the general public, provided an overview of the various initiatives currently being undertaken and gave the opportunity to participants to propose ideas on specific ICT initiatives that could be included in the Digital Malta Programme of Initiatives for 2016.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth, Dr José Herrera opened the workshop. He emphasised the importance of these consultation workshops, arguing that the Digital Malta strategy was in the first place not created by technical people and experts in the field of technology, but through the involvement of the various stakeholders. He stated that this approach of collaboration and consultation will continue, because at the end of the day the strategy was there to deliver value to the citizens and to achieve a vision for a whole nation which is empowered by technology.
Dr Herrera further stated that there is a need to adapt and move with the fast pace of technology and to capitalise on the transformation in processes and methods of work that digital technology can bring with it. He referred to a number of examples how ICT and digital technology was creating new business models such as cloud-based services, online bookings, online shopping, electronic government and the phenomenom of Big Data.
The Parliamentary Secretary argued that as a nation we had the ability to further transform ourselves into a service economy, with the vast majority of the services being directly dependent on digital technology. He accentuated that Innovation through digital technology was key in the implementation of our national Digital Strategy.
The workshop then continued with Emanuel Darmanin, deputy chairperson of the Digital Malta Board, providing a stock-take of the initiatives currently being implemented by the different stakeholders, in line with the Digital Malta programme of initiatives for 2015. In his intervention Mr Darmanin stated that during 2015 work is being carried out on 79% (56 out of 71) of the Digital Malta Actions. He further indicated that, from over 220 initiatives being implemented during 2015, 62 initiatives were more than 75% complete by July.
The next interventions were made by two keynote speakers: Dr Joyce Cassar, director general Implementation within the Office of the Prime Minister, spoke about the government business agenda and the role that ICT plays. She was followed by Dr Angelo Dalli, a Maltese business entrepreneur and angel investor, who shared his thoughts about how ICT can help local start-ups to grow and internationalise.
The attendees were then split into two parallel streams to discuss two thematic pillars of Digital Malta: Business transformation through ICT (Digital Business) and Better use of ICTs in government (Digital Government). Throughout these sessions, the various stakeholders had the opportunity to discuss, recommend and share ideas with Digital Malta representatives and the other stakeholders.
The workshop concluded with the chairperson of the Digital Malta Governing Board, Godfrey Vella, mentioning the importance of these workshops as a means to gather feedback from various different sectors within society.
Ultimately, he stated, a paradigm shift is needed in the way technology is utilised. Information should be the basis for the creation of services that result in a better quality of life for the citizens.