Minister highlights Liberia’s plan to improve ICT

Liberia is making efforts to develop ICT in the country, said Deputy Information Minister Gabriel I.H. Williams.

"We drafted Liberia's ICT for Development policy last year, and it has been presented before the national assembly for approval," he said.

The policy, he explained, was borne out of an ICT conference held for Liberia, with firms such as IBM and Microsoft sending their agents to identify the various areas of investment in the sector.

"We are looking forward to the ICT Act being approved and passed into law by 2009 because there are so many bills before the house at the moment," Williams said.

One major initiative of the policy is to waive custom duties on imported ICT-related equipment so as to enable greater access for Liberians.

Though Williams recognized that little positive change has occurred in the country's ICT sector so far, he noted that the government is planning to ensure its accountability and efficiency by providing the work force with ICT training.

"We've realized that the more training our younger ones get, the better for us. We have to invest in the human resources of our country," he said. "We can't allow anything to go bad for us again."

All government ministries' activities are now being computerized, and Web sites have been designed to ensure that most government policies are online.

The government is also encouraging newspapers to go online, Williams added.

"We want to build on what we have," he said. "Presently, we've spent several millions of dollars on the building of a new university town, where most departments of our university would be relocated. Upon completion, we hope to have a department devoted to the study of high tech, including the engineering aspect. We even plan to start offering online courses."

"We've realized here that for us to move forward as a nation, we need to be a part of the information age," Williams said.

The deputy minister stressed that Liberia has a strong relationship with neighboring Sierra Leone through the Mano River Union Treaty, and the countries will join forces in ICT development efforts.

Liberia, however, has limited resources, he said, and depends on its international partners to execute some projects.

"The more funds we get, the more plans we plan to execute in developing our ICT sector," Williams said. "No amount of money should be enough to be spent on ICT development in this country."