Information and Communication Technologies played a big role in Samoa’s graduation from Least Developed Country status. So says the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Tuisugaletaua Sofara Aveau.
Tuisugaletaua, Samoa’s I.C.T. Minister, spoke to the Samoa Observer at a multistakeholder ICT Forum titled Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaption, which was held yesterday.
Asked if he believed I.C.T’s contributed to Samoa’s graduation, he said yes.
“I am sure there is a lot of contribution in there to develop the country and move to the next level,” he said.
“Yes I.C.T.’s really helped that way.”
Tuisugaletaua said I.C.Ts were “absolutely essential” to Samoa’s development.
“Every facet of our development is dependent on I.C.T. now, transport, education health agriculture all of those are dependent on IT,” he said.
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He said Samoa was building on the level of access people have to I.C.T.s, using the example of the SchoolNet system that is in place through the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture.
“We are starting with education,” he said.
“For example, we have the facilities available for students to use that on internet and be available to it and access.”
He said another issue was that of internet affordability.
“We can do the access now we are working on our (second) submarine cable as you probably know,” said Tuisugaletaua.
“(So while) the access is there but it doesn't mean that it will be cheaper.
“So what we need to do is to make sure that that access is cheap and affordable to people to be able to use it properly.
“It is very important for Samoa.”
He said to achieve this, the Government would like to see more competition in the market.
“First competition we would like to offer the capacity to as many providers as possible and that way they can compete,” he said.
“Secondly if we can regulate the use it will be much more efficient to dispatch the system.”
Speaking about I.C.T.s contributin to Samoa’s sustainable development, he said the technology opens up the door to information and knowledge from around the world.
“The connection to that (information) makes it much more easier and of course it will be available as a good resource for us,” he said.
“We are a small country and we don't have many resources but we can depend on those resources."
“By using IT and we can get to those resources very, very quickly and use it in the best way for us.”
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