The Department of Communications' (DOC's) newly released strategic plan will place a focus on building up small business in the ICT sector.
The plan marks a shift of mindset for the department that has traditionally supported the idea of using the industry to develop others. Speaking during an interview with ITWeb, director-general Mamodupi Mohlala said the department wants to enable small IT businesses to flourish.
“We need to look at bringing SMMEs into the sector, and both develop them and use them in development of the country,” she explained.
The department wants more new businesses in the ICT sector to help it present new technology-related services to rural areas, which is another point of focus of the department's new strategy. “We traditionally focused on e-education as a service, and we now want to bring in a more intense e-government programme.”
Mohlala said the department wants to increase the services to include e-health and e-commerce solutions for rural areas. Bringing technology and small technology businesses to those areas will be the first aspect of the department's plan.
The DOC said it will make a concerted effort to make the success of ICT filter down into the underprivileged. “We are making a concerted effort to make ICT a tool for development, and our support of the set-top box industry is an example,” she noted.
Mohlala said the department also wants to strengthen relations with international parties to share information and skills. The current focus will be on the Southern African Development Community region.
“It will be more beneficial for us to speak as a block to the international community, as opposed to a lone voice,” communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda reiterated at the region's ministerial meeting held in Johannesburg last week.
“It is time that we mobilise locally available resources to implement continental ICT priority projects. We should look at strengthening our own financial institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund, as well as the African Investment Bank.
“The strengthening of our investment and funding institutions will also assist in fast-tracking integration, particularly regional integration in the area of broadband infrastructure network,” he said.
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