Dear Phares,
Thanks for your comments. Artificial currency manipulation is
not the way to go nor can we prevent cost of labour rising with increasing
standards of living and a growing middle class. What we have to do for the IT
Enabled Sector is to constantly move up the value chain (i.e. higher end IT
services such as software development) which is already beginning to happen. Additionally,
we will need to leverage the various advantages we have in location and
preferred hub in Africa. The name of the game has got to be productivity and
competitiveness.
I also concur that we need to support and promote our own but
that will require a concerted effort to elevate our quality levels to global
standards across the board and also for us to develop a resilient innovative
culture. One of the things we are trying to do is to encourage the government
to source local software products and BPO services, while also ensuring we
engage global standards consultancy to ascertain we keep up with global
developments. It’s a delicate balancing act which Dr. Ndemo is
undertaking!
Mugo
Mugo Kibati
Director General
Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat
KUSCCO Centre, 2nd Floor - Upper Hill
PO Box 52301 - 00200, Nairobi
Email: mugo@vision2030.go.ke
www.vision2030.go.ke
From:
kictanet-bounces+mugo=vision2030.go.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+mugo=vision2030.go.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of Phares Kariuki
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 10:36 AM
To: Mugo Kibati
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Vision 2030: ICT and Other Sectors Converged
(Day 2)
My
queries are below:
When
it comes to Economics, we are lagging behind. We had a projected growth rate of
10%, however the World Bank estimates that we will (on the upside) have
economic growth of 5% in 2012. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/KENYAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22600594~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:356509,00.html,
not sure how the 2030 secretariat is handling this.
On
the economic pillar, I have some issues with the BPO sector. As we approach
2030, our competitiveness will depend on either a weaker currency or somehow
reducing our cost of labour (China currently artificially prevents it's
currency from weakening to remain competitive in exports). How do we ensure
that our growth does not kill the very sector we are trying to grow?
We
also need to ingrain a culture of eating our own dogfood, growing Kenya as a
market for Kenyan produce (e.g. What we have done with tea). How can we spur
production of GSM Infrastructure, have policy that supports local software as
opposed to imported software (use of open platforms would save this country a
few billion USD every year) e.g. It may cost more to maintain an Open Source
software platform (e.g. Ubuntu), but it actually is cheaper than buying MS
(basically, the money is kept in our local ecosystem, creating more employment
for our IT graduates who maintain the system anyway), Belgium has actually
implemented the model... We also have a model being piloted in the EU, the
Living Labs concept, http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_lab,
which can be used for community level innovation.
The
latest report by the ICT Board estimates total ICT expenditure at 700M. If we
can prevent the outflow of a lot of this spend (in open information systems
that have equivalent standards) we have the double edged sword of perfecting
our developer ecosystem whilst saving the country in general a fortune...
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:00 AM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Bwana
Kibati for your well articulated responses. As you can see, your responses have
raised further queries on energy from Brainiac and we look forward to your
responses.
A great point you raise on the fact that changing our value
systems must be a national collective effort if we are going to have social
transformation. We can have all the infrastructure but if we do not have
values, then there might not be much meaning to Kenyans.
Barrack, Solomon and Harry, you now have it from Mr. Kibati.
Harry, I do hope that you will take on the challenge to
present the Vision 2030 secretariat with a concept on energy distribution. This
will be a great outcome of this debate and I am sure Brainiac and other
listers may want to join you.
Barrack, i think this is your opportunity to influence. Is
it possible to suggest how Vision 2030 can influence national values using
ICTs? Tusingojee serikali...:)
As we reflect on the responses, we also move on to
Day 2.
The focus is on the three pillars of Vision
2030. The vision is grounded on three piilars and we will
look at the first one which is the economic pillar.
The
Economic pillar seeks to improve the prosperity of all regions of the country
and all Kenyans by achieving Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate by 2012.
http://www.vision2030.go.ke/index.php/pillars
The
Medium Term Plan (2008-2012 identifies six targetted priority sectors namely
tourism, agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, IT enabled
services and financial services.
Over to
you listers. Please feel free to still raise concerns on the vision or on Mr.
Kibati's responses too.
Sasa basi wakilisheni!.
Rgds
Grace
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have
the strength to survive, you have the power to succeed. Life is all about
choices we make depending upon the situation we are in. Go forth and rule the
World!
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Warm Regards,
Phares Kaboro Kariuki