Government eyes Huawei for ICT educational development

Vanuatu cannot escape from tapping into the fast developing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) taking place around the world today to ensure it provides the avenue for the educational development of its people and the country as a whole. The country must stay in tune with the rest of the world, the Education Minister Bob Loughman says.

If Government can tap into these technological development taking place today this will enhance the learning opportunities of Vanuatu’s children, he says.

Minister Loughman was speaking at the launching of Huawei's ICT Solutions Roadshow to showcase new technologies to improve Vanuatu services, held at Warwick Le Lagon Resort in Port Vila yesterday.

“We will be working together with these organizations to see how best we can tap into this ICT services to facilitate improved learning for our children,” the Minister added, referring to Government’s relations with Huawei which installed the Government e-government ICT network four years ago.

“If we do not provide them with these learning tools using the latest ICT technologies available then we are not being fair to them,” he continued his comments about the important of utilizing ICT technologies in Government’s education system.

Bob Loughman confirmed that his Ministry has been having discussions with the Chinese ICT giant, Huawei, about the provision of e-education services including e-library for schools in the country. But he said he could not at this stage reveal the full detail of the program until it had the endorsement of the Council of Ministers.

The Minister said once the plan has been fine-tuned and endorsement received from the COM the program will be trialed in a selected 25 schools throughout the country before it is rolled out to all the schools in the country including primary schools.

Loughman said such a development in the education sector of the country would require funding. But he said he was positive about the support of development partners.

The launch of Huawei ICT and Data Centre Demo Trucks comes ahead of today’s opening of the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Pacific Islands Telecommunication Association (PITA) at the Warwick Le Lagon Resort in Port Vila which is being attended by over 250 delegates from through the Pacific island countries and beyond.

The Huawei ICT Solutions Roadshow showcases new technologies in industry solutions for government services in the form of e-education, e-health and so forth; rapid teleconferencing, digital/android technology, cloud cube, radio surveillance, mobile broadband technology, and ICT Talent providing Huawei certification program for Pacific Islands.

Huawei say they are currently working with the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation to upgrade VBTC’s Televisen blong Vanuatu services from analogue to digital broadcasting using digital and android technology.

Huawei is one of the world leaders in ICT development and services amassing an annual revenue of $US39.5-billion in 2013. The company currently has 43 regional training centers and 3 global training centers providing Huawei ICT certification program.