ICT key in achieving Millennium Development Goals: Carcasses

The arrival of the Interchange Submarine Cable from Fiji will totally change the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Telecommunications landscape of Vanuatu, Prime Minister Moana Carcasses said in his opening speech at the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) in Port Vila last week.

This service, he said, will link Vanuatu to the outside world with a fantastic speed and capacity, for the first time in Vanuatu’s history.

“All of our major operators have now signed up to the cable, and are in the process of providing those marvelous benefits to customers,” the Vanuatu Prime Minister added.

He said the people, the press, and all the political parties support the expansion of ICTs and Telecommunications in the country, allowing for an open market with two major operators – Telecom Vanuatu Limited and Digicel.

He outlined the country’s ICT achievements to date that include: an excellent and independent Telecommunications Radiocommunications Regulator; mobile penetration gone from just 5% to over 90% of households in just six years; a $28-million (Vt280-million) Government Broadband Network built; an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) – first the Pacific Islands established; Government inventorized all its ICT assets and established an Enterprise Architecture for its ICT systems; and Parliament passed three major policies in 2013 – The National ICT Policy, the National Cyber-security Policy, and The National Universal Access Policy.

Prime Minister Carcasses pointed out that all these success are a result of a multi-stakeholder approach between the government, private sector, and civil society, which “makes Vanuatu one of the best places in the Pacific to invest in ICTs.”

“We are committed to using ICT to achieve our national vision of “A just, educated, healthy and wealthy Vanuatu,” he continued.

He told more than 250 delegates attending the PITA AGM from throughout the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand and further afield that Vanuatu saw ICTs as key in achieving all of the country’s Millennium Development Goals.

Vanuatu’s National ICT Policy directs all government ministries, policy-makers and major project managers to allocate a reasonable percentage of their budgets to ICTs as enablers of success.

The nation’s Universal Access Policy directs operators to connect 98% of the population by January 1, 2018, mostly with mobile broadband. A major emphasis will be on connecting schools, health facilities and public offices.

Prime Minister Carcasses emphasized that his government’s key goals and objectives are premised on improving the economy and activity focused towards use of technologies for the overall growth of the nation.