Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
The Government is seeking assistance from Europe to accelerate digitalisation plans for Trinidad and Tobago.
This was revealed by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday as he said the Ministry of Digital Transformation is looking at adopting some of Estonia’s practices.
Speaking at Carenage Police Youth Club and Homework Centre yesterday, Rowley said, “In Europe, Estonia is one of the countries that have done so much in getting where we want to be in using the modern technology. So, we interacted with Estonia. We got the agreement to help us and today our Ministry of Digital Transformation is in the corridors of and working with the Estonia helping the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago to digitise our country.”
He said the government will continue to allocate resources to ensure there is connectivity across the country.
At present, he said there is a programme in place to bring connectivity to rural communities, and more programmes which provide connectivity will be added as time goes by. The Prime Minister yesterday said he also wants to digitise all Government ministries as he focuses on transforming the country to become a technologically advanced one.
He said he is currently eyeing the Ministry of Works and Transport as he revealed his plans to introduce a system where licence plates would be read digitally by law enforcement officers to keep track of criminal elements.
“We are moving to the situation where the license plates on our vehicles should be such that they could be read digitally. So, once you move around this country in a vehicle, the police should be able to read your licence plates and, in an instance, determine who owns that vehicle, whether it is registered or not, whether all the legal requirements are met and, in fact, where you’ve been. You could imagine the police being able to have that information? But to do that we have to build the digital infrastructure,” he said.
However, he admitted that achieving this dream would be no easy feat.
“What is required as we transform is to shut down some operations and replace them by other, better, more valuable operations. But that will bring voices who only talk about what you’re going to have to shut down, never talking about what you’re going to have to replace it,” he added.
Rowley attended an event where Huawei donated an ideahub board, ten electronic tablets and one year of free connectivity to the Police Youth Club and homework centre for the residents of Carenage.