Austin Gatt's Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications (MITC) is expected to continue building on the string of successes achieved over the past few years but new challenges loom ahead...
During an interview Dr Gatt spoke about what has been achieved so far and his plans for the new legislature, including the challenge of erecting SmartCity Malta and the possibility of reaching a consensus with the opposition over national ICT policies.
What were the highlights of the previous legislature which will continue to develop in the new legislature?
I have been "eMinister" for eight years. During this time my work method has been consistent. Our efforts in the last legislature focused on closing off the tasks and targets we set ourselves in the national strategy we published in 2004.
Many of our successes from that term have been turned into new challenges by the Smart Island Strategy we published last December.
I think the Smart Island strategy is quite a tall order in and of itself. Our Smart Island strategy - which you have covered in your pages in some detail in the past and is available from www.thesmartisland.gov.mt - is a good guide for your readers to understand what we plan to do. I don't think "just" is the word that would come to mind to most people who will read that.
Our ICT infrastructure and external environment would be unrecognisable today to our eyes when we planned the future in 2000. What was science fiction in 2000 is commonplace today and will be ancient history within two years.
We still have pockets of ICT illiteracy but literacy in itself is not sufficient. That is why we have worked hard on opening up broadband access and much work still needs to be done to reach the elderly and other disadvantaged groups.
The drive to recruit more young people to the technology industry must continue to grow at nothing short of an exponential rate of increase accumulated over what we have managed to achieve so far. Getting Malta ready for SmartCity - symbolic as it is in the first place of the growth in ICT industry here - is a mission that has only just started.
It is time to reinvent e-Government. Electronic public service must go beyond the 24x7 philosophy and adopt a logic that understands the need of the user on an individual rather than collective basis.
In the past term we stopped at laying the foundations of the edifice that is to support electronic business. But the foundations are nowhere near enough. It will be this coming period when we expecting the levels of excellence we have reached in the public and banking sectors (for examples) to spread to our SMEs who are the true drivers of our economic prosperity.
The new term will be the time when Malta will not only be recognised as an "eReady" community but as an "eAccomplished" community endowed by a world-leading ICT industry and home to a new breed of SMEs that take this country to an entirely new level of prosperity.
Are there any negative points from your ministry's work in the field of ICT in the previous legislature that you would not like to see repeated in the next few years?
My experience over the past eight years in this sector has been by and large very positive and I enter this new phase with much enthusiasm and encouraged by what we have managed to do so far. Of course I have had my own share of frustrations. It is incredible to me even now that some segments of the bureaucracy remain hostile to technology or at best just plain scared of it. I was also let down by some stakeholders who paid lip service to declarations of principle when we agreed on strategy but sought to obstruct progress because they perceived actions to be contrary to their narrow sectoral interest...
But I consider these as facts of life that one must learn from with a good dose of humility. One can never consult, explain, communicate and understand others enough.
Is the development of SmartCity Malta on target? Besides Microsoft, are there other companies already expressing their willingness to open offices there? If yes, can you give names?
The planning work for SmartCity is extremely advanced and I am informed that the full documentation will be shortly submitted to Mepa for processing. From the government's end, we are building capacity within the Government Services Unit to provide all public services to SmartCity tenants within the time frames committed to in our agreement with the owners of the project.
Since we are partners in the joint venture, I can only tell you that the interest from foreign investors in SmartCity is significant.
How is the e-learning strategy being implemented? When shall we see its effects on our educational system?
We are working with the Education Ministry on setting our priorities in place to implement the strategy in full. The effect is already being felt in the first schools that have seen the implementation of the "hard" technological dimension of the strategy.
A number of schools have broadband internet now and teaching is being delivered over interactive white boards using available online resources that help teachers give the best possible lesson.In the next few months I hope to be able to announce substantial progress in the roll-out of this "hard" upgrading. We are also working on training teachers and school administrators. Shortly after that, we shall be launching a public tender for the deployment of the e-Learning platform, opening a wide range of opportunities for the provision of leading-edge educational applications.
Will Nisco (National Information Society Advisory Council) keep its role in the coming years? Which themes and issues are likely to be brought up for discussion in the immediate future?
In so far as it will continue to be a forum for all relevant stakeholders in our sector, Nisco will, by and large, retain its shape. I am planning, however, to dedicate a specific discussion with Nisco participants on how they feel they should contribute to the implementation of our agreed strategy to maximise on their already-extremely valid contribution.
Is the government seeking new vertical strategic alliances? If yes, which are the interested foreign companies?
An important part of making the best of our alliances is to focus on consolidating our relationship with partners we already have as much as seeking new partners. We are exploring new streams and opportunities but, at the moment our focus is on how to push our existing alliances forward and to work with our allies to implement our Smart Island strategy.
What will be your relationship with the opposition and the opposition's spokesman on ICT? Will you reach out for a consensus on the same model of the consensus on the financial sector?
In the last years as a Government Minister responsible for ICT, precious time was lost by personal attacks and bickering on petty matters which were not policy-driven. I look forward to ideas and suggestions if provided in a constructive spirit such as the comments made by the opposition's representative in Nisco. If the same attitude is adopted at higher levels, I have no qualms to state that consensus is a reachable state of affairs in ICT policy.
During an interview Dr Gatt spoke about what has been achieved so far and his plans for the new legislature, including the challenge of erecting SmartCity Malta and the possibility of reaching a consensus with the opposition over national ICT policies.
What were the highlights of the previous legislature which will continue to develop in the new legislature?
I have been "eMinister" for eight years. During this time my work method has been consistent. Our efforts in the last legislature focused on closing off the tasks and targets we set ourselves in the national strategy we published in 2004.
Many of our successes from that term have been turned into new challenges by the Smart Island Strategy we published last December.
I think the Smart Island strategy is quite a tall order in and of itself. Our Smart Island strategy - which you have covered in your pages in some detail in the past and is available from www.thesmartisland.gov.mt - is a good guide for your readers to understand what we plan to do. I don't think "just" is the word that would come to mind to most people who will read that.
Our ICT infrastructure and external environment would be unrecognisable today to our eyes when we planned the future in 2000. What was science fiction in 2000 is commonplace today and will be ancient history within two years.
We still have pockets of ICT illiteracy but literacy in itself is not sufficient. That is why we have worked hard on opening up broadband access and much work still needs to be done to reach the elderly and other disadvantaged groups.
The drive to recruit more young people to the technology industry must continue to grow at nothing short of an exponential rate of increase accumulated over what we have managed to achieve so far. Getting Malta ready for SmartCity - symbolic as it is in the first place of the growth in ICT industry here - is a mission that has only just started.
It is time to reinvent e-Government. Electronic public service must go beyond the 24x7 philosophy and adopt a logic that understands the need of the user on an individual rather than collective basis.
In the past term we stopped at laying the foundations of the edifice that is to support electronic business. But the foundations are nowhere near enough. It will be this coming period when we expecting the levels of excellence we have reached in the public and banking sectors (for examples) to spread to our SMEs who are the true drivers of our economic prosperity.
The new term will be the time when Malta will not only be recognised as an "eReady" community but as an "eAccomplished" community endowed by a world-leading ICT industry and home to a new breed of SMEs that take this country to an entirely new level of prosperity.
Are there any negative points from your ministry's work in the field of ICT in the previous legislature that you would not like to see repeated in the next few years?
My experience over the past eight years in this sector has been by and large very positive and I enter this new phase with much enthusiasm and encouraged by what we have managed to do so far. Of course I have had my own share of frustrations. It is incredible to me even now that some segments of the bureaucracy remain hostile to technology or at best just plain scared of it. I was also let down by some stakeholders who paid lip service to declarations of principle when we agreed on strategy but sought to obstruct progress because they perceived actions to be contrary to their narrow sectoral interest...
But I consider these as facts of life that one must learn from with a good dose of humility. One can never consult, explain, communicate and understand others enough.
Is the development of SmartCity Malta on target? Besides Microsoft, are there other companies already expressing their willingness to open offices there? If yes, can you give names?
The planning work for SmartCity is extremely advanced and I am informed that the full documentation will be shortly submitted to Mepa for processing. From the government's end, we are building capacity within the Government Services Unit to provide all public services to SmartCity tenants within the time frames committed to in our agreement with the owners of the project.
Since we are partners in the joint venture, I can only tell you that the interest from foreign investors in SmartCity is significant.
How is the e-learning strategy being implemented? When shall we see its effects on our educational system?
We are working with the Education Ministry on setting our priorities in place to implement the strategy in full. The effect is already being felt in the first schools that have seen the implementation of the "hard" technological dimension of the strategy.
A number of schools have broadband internet now and teaching is being delivered over interactive white boards using available online resources that help teachers give the best possible lesson.In the next few months I hope to be able to announce substantial progress in the roll-out of this "hard" upgrading. We are also working on training teachers and school administrators. Shortly after that, we shall be launching a public tender for the deployment of the e-Learning platform, opening a wide range of opportunities for the provision of leading-edge educational applications.
Will Nisco (National Information Society Advisory Council) keep its role in the coming years? Which themes and issues are likely to be brought up for discussion in the immediate future?
In so far as it will continue to be a forum for all relevant stakeholders in our sector, Nisco will, by and large, retain its shape. I am planning, however, to dedicate a specific discussion with Nisco participants on how they feel they should contribute to the implementation of our agreed strategy to maximise on their already-extremely valid contribution.
Is the government seeking new vertical strategic alliances? If yes, which are the interested foreign companies?
An important part of making the best of our alliances is to focus on consolidating our relationship with partners we already have as much as seeking new partners. We are exploring new streams and opportunities but, at the moment our focus is on how to push our existing alliances forward and to work with our allies to implement our Smart Island strategy.
What will be your relationship with the opposition and the opposition's spokesman on ICT? Will you reach out for a consensus on the same model of the consensus on the financial sector?
In the last years as a Government Minister responsible for ICT, precious time was lost by personal attacks and bickering on petty matters which were not policy-driven. I look forward to ideas and suggestions if provided in a constructive spirit such as the comments made by the opposition's representative in Nisco. If the same attitude is adopted at higher levels, I have no qualms to state that consensus is a reachable state of affairs in ICT policy.