Fundamental to the development of new skills is the continued investment in the learning of mathematics, physical science and coding for every school-going child, said telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele.
The minister delivered the keynote address yesterday to open GovTech 2017, taking place in Durban.
He explained: "The outcome of the exposure to coding skills is to increase the pool of community members who have proven proficiencies in the design, development and deployment of applications and other programmes that will contribute to e-government and most problems associated to poor service delivery due to intensive manual operations and other processes of government.
"Hackathon exercises feed our priority to increase skills in Internet utilisation to prepare the current future workforce through skilling and re-skilling to anticipate the changes and participate optimally in the fourth industrial revolution."
Developing SMMEs
According to Cwele, the development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the sector is non-negotiable.
After extensive consultation, the ANC government is finalising the ICT SMME Development Strategy to speed up job creation and innovation capacity, he said.
"We must all embrace and support these SMMEs not just as a gesture of goodwill or solidarity, but for our own sustainable development, growth and competitiveness."
The minister also expressed the need to establish procurement spend that will actually go to SMMEs.
He pointed out that in the last financial year, 12% of the budget was spent on SMMEs, but this current financial year shows that only 11% will be spent on these small businesses. This regression, he noted, must be confronted.
"We must radically change this and simply move to at least 30% of spend on SMMEs in the current medium-term expenditure framework. This does not only apply to government but also applies to the private sector."
ITU backing
Cwele confirmed SA has received the backing of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to host its telecoms and ICT industry conference.
Earlier this month, ITWeb reported that SA had won the bid to host ITU Telecom World in 2018, subject to the conclusion of contractual arrangements.
The minister reiterated the conference will bring together more than 10 000 delegates representing different governments, leaders in the telecoms industry, innovators and so forth from across the world, and this will contribute to SA's economy.
"We invite you all to start preparations without delay for the success of this global event that will be held for the first time on the African continent. Our government is happy that SITA and national stakeholders also agree to synchronise this event with the next GovTech so that we don't have to travel twice to Durban.
"We are also synchronising this ITU event with the next BRICS ICT ministers meeting. We will soon invite you all to nominate the representative to serve in the national preparations committee for this conference."
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