The Ministry of Technology Vs Technology — A LOOK INTO FUTURE!

Over the last few decades, the Maldives realizing that they are at a saturation level with the current economic model had started to work towards economic diversification. The conversation started with the global financial crisis of 2008/2009, which didn’t hit the Maldives at its onset, but as global recovery started to take place, our economy got impacted as our tourism product was pretty much based on a pre-booking model and many countries especially the European market moving towards a saving mentality. But this didn’t stop us from grabbing ourselves into new markets like Chinese and Indian as we adapted and moved forward.

Nevertheless, the extremely saturated primary sector of tourism contributing directly and indirectly to the economy of the country has led to an economic brain drain in the Maldives — considering the lack of space for innovation, research, its application, and coupled with weaker technology infrastructure. The dependency on the hospitality industry to predominately feed our ends was/is becoming an overburden.

The Economic Diversification Strategy that was launched in 2013 is still lying dusting on the shelves of policymakers. ICT was one sector it highlighted (yes there was a dedicated section for that) in further strengthening if we are looking to get a better contribution to our GDP from other sources. Follow this link to read more about the sector and areas of focus (page 114).

Science and Technology

While we talk about science and technology, or in other words — innovations or novelties or disruption, it has always been created by two, which are companies or the government and research institutes over the years bridging the gap and acting as the third actor — which gives the breathing space for new innovations to grow & nurture themselves. In the last decades, we are seeing a growth of Startups, taking a pivotal role in this.

Whereas the Maldives is far behind in catching up with this buzz word “Startup”. But now, every other institute, company, organization, or government is TALKING about it. Mind you, they are ONLY talking about it and nothing concrete is coming out of these conversations.

HOW DOES OUR POLICY FRAMEWORK LOOK LIKE?

National Center for Information Technology (NCIT)

The Government established NCIT in the year 2003 as the main government agency for the development, promotion, and propagation of Information Technology (IT) in the Maldives.

They worked towards providing the govt the needed technical support and consultation for government technology-based infrastructure (servers and troubleshooting) development but this was confined to just line ministry and coming up with portals for inter-government communication and portals for line ministries. Over the years the debate of what they should be doing is a long discussion and their mandate.

Ministry Communication, Science and Technology

The current government established a new Ministry to show how important they consider the role of science and technology would be for the socio-economic progression of Maldives. NCIT is now part of MCST. The reasoning for the formulation of this new ministry was based on the consultation the current government did with various focus groups while drafting the current government manifesto or the strategic action plan as we call it now.

When you say MCST, let me break the myth that they are here not to just to address the issues of developers or tech enthusiast, but they are here to work on the policies which give space for research development, developing the science and tech sector and also for providing a roadmap for key infrastructural development that government needs to undertake to grow the industry.

What is our current structure?

As an outside observer and getting bits & pieces of information, I could be entirely WRONG in my assumptions of the current structures. The following recommendations are just suggestions based on this observation and how things could be done better.

This is how I see the current framework of the ministry and how it operates and from what I gathered, there seems to be a lot of issues in online communication, whose mandate is what and who does what.

Let’s give a look into how other developing or middle-income countries have taken up the formation of this Ministry. Perhaps, it could give us an idea of our way forward.

Malaysia

It was a struggle to understand their model, but the country has a strong private sector that is developing by itself when it comes to science and technology, but the government had focused on developing the needed basic infrastructure and regulatory bodies to help the growth. The history of the government line ministry from its inception to what it is now under the current regime is a lot to take in. But what they have done is that they had separated Communications and Science Technology into two different line ministries from the beginning and hence there was an easier mandate and stronger role to be played. The Ministry of Entrepreneurs primary role is for creating the environment needed for the development of the technical or startups in Malaysia.

India

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology established right after its independence (need to verify this information) was dissolved in 2016 and was bifurcated into the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Giving the two-line ministries an easier way of handling their mandate. Again, the Ministry of Science and Technology is an entirely different ministry focusing on science & Technology, which is largely different from the scope of Information Technology. The major player seen under MeitY is Digital India, which we all talk about other than the CSC Academy (CSC e-governance Services India ltd, a company established under MeitY to provide the Common Service Centers to support the Digital India program).

Singapore

The Ministry of Communication and Information majorly looks into the Information Technology concept of everything and they have established GOVTECH or in other words the Government Technology Agency, which is a statutory board of the Singapore govt, under the PMO (restructured from the former entity Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore in 2016). With regards to Science and Technology, they have formed the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research in 1991, another statutory board under the Ministry of Trade & Industry, which supports R&D that is aligned to areas of competitive advantage and national needs for Singapore.

Lesson Learned from these countries!

A clear definition and lines were drawn by these countries on differentiating between Science & Technology and Information Technology/Science. See below how the definition is made, so that the line ministries can function better.

erhaps during the consultation stage if things could have been figured out and if a clear structure was drawn before the establishment of the new Ministry, we could have a better framework laid out for the economic growth with supporting line ministries.

Based on these and after going through few other models, here is a model, which I personally think could work for us here in the Maldives.

Ministry of Communication, Information & Technology

Based on the above case studies & it is best to bifurcate the Ministry into two different line Ministries by moving Science & Technology to Ministry of Environment and rename it as Ministry of Environment, Energy, Science & Technology (MEEST) and rename the current MCST to Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. To structure it further and based on international practices and models, have added Maldives Post Limited under the portfolio. And here is an idea of how the MCIT would look like.

DIGITAL MALDIVES

This body to be restructured as a statutory body to be established under the supervision of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology but to be presided over by Chief Technology Officer (CTO) — who would be reporting directly to the President. The primary focus of digital transformation of Maldives and ensuring that government is aligned with the Digital Maldives Plan developed and work towards its implementation. Transforming Maldives towards a Smart Nation.

TECH ADVISORY COUNCIL

A Tech Advisory Council would be formulated under the President with representations from line ministries, private sector representatives, and from related asssociations. The CTO would be reponsible to ensure that the digital Maldives plan is put into implementation and achieved, as well as acting as the secreteriate for the Tech Advisory Council and Digital Maldives.

The different roles of various departments or areas, that’s a different write-up as this one is just focused on making a business case to bifurcate the current ministry.

Well once again, this is just what I thought could workaround as a concept and based on few country models already implemented through trial and error.