Labour's ICT plan not very intelligent, ministry finds

The Information Technology and Investments Ministry has labelled parts of the Labour Party's draft document on ICT as outdated, vague and irrelevant, saying the document was an amateurish rehash of policies being implemented by the government.

Labour's IT spokesman, Leo Brincat, said on Saturday that a new Labour government would transform Malta into an "intelligent island" with a knowledge-driven economy by developing and exploiting ICT.

In reply, the IT ministry issued a four-page statement yesterday shooting down the proposals made by the opposition, saying it was seriously concerned about Labour's plans "not to buy complex technological systems from the private sector".

This meant that systems needed in the health sector and in taxation should be built by the government instead of being purchased from the private sector, the IT Ministry said, labelling such a policy inefficient.

The ministry said this was a symptom of the opposition's lack of trust in the private sector.

In its policy document, the MLP had "finally" recognised the need to replace conventional jobs in traditional industry with new IT-based activity after years of trying to take political mileage from workers being laid off from industries which were no longer viable.

Nowhere in the document did the MLP outline ways in which employees working in dwindling industries could be retrained in the knowledge-based economy, the ministry said.

"The strategic principles which the opposition has offered for the sector are limited and offer no response to new technology and developments in this area. Essentially, the Labour Party is committing itself to move on with the strategy of the Nationalist government while leaving out aspects which are of crucial importance," the ministry said.

IT and Investments Minister Austin Gatt said the most evidently missing aspect in the document was SmartCity@Malta and how this important project is to influence the entire ICT sector in Malta.

He lambasted the MLP for portraying the government's strategic partners, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, SAP, IBM and HP, in a bad light. "A lack of trust in these partnerships is a very bad signal which the opposition is sending to present and prospective partners," he said, adding that the government was preparing a new IT strategy covering the 2007-2010 period.