National ICT Policies
Overview:
The Dominican Republic is highly focused on the technology advancements through the country. Indotel is the governing organization overseeing these policies, and the country has a vision in which many new and exciting policies will be implemented by 2015. A review of the vision leads one to believe that the initiatives will be relatively easy to achieve, since so many countries already have many of the technologies implemented.
Highlights:
The “National Strategy for the Information and Knowledge Society” was released in October 2005 stating the future. As noted in the document, it is apparent that the primary focus of the technological advancements are changes and improvements in ICT. Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic , repeatedly reiterates his personal enthusiasm with all of the initiatives underway. As noted previously, Indotel is the governing body for ICT within the Dominican Republic.
The Dominican Republic believes that “the social and economic development depends on the extensive use of knowledge and information and communications technology.” Active participation is mandatory from the Public Sector, Private Sector, and Civil Society, The strategy itself is called “e-dominicana".
In 1998, the General Telecommunications Law was developed. The evolution of changes from 1998 to 2005 still needs to be researched and defined.
Some public initiatives include:
• Community computer and communications centers
• Pilot project of community school tele-centers
• Digital classrooms in universities
• Internet in public libraries, community centers and cultural centers
• ICT Training Centers
• CCI Project for Women
Some examples of the initiatives for the government include:
• National survey of technologies in government
• Standards and norms of ICT
• Government intranet
• Virtual Desk Public Official (implementing an information systems platform for centralizing information, which the Public Official can monitor the status of their government in real-time)
The vision is to have all of the changes completed by 2015. Some of the challenges that have been noted are promoting cultural change, incorporating ICT into regular operations and interactions, and channeling the material contributions of public relations into the information society within the Dominican Republic . Additionally, the financial funding is a challenge. The country has identified some natural resources such as a Telecommunications Development Fund, creation of a patriomonial fund, and creation of financial cooperation agreements between the Public Sector and providers.
If the Dominican Republic stays on track with the vision, by 2015, they will be about on par with where the United States is today.