The Major Influence of Technology on Fiji’s Future
Given Fiji’s limited resources and geographical size in comparison with the global powerhouses, we are reduced to the assimilation of new technological concepts instead of invention. Our article this week talks about Fiji’s increased focus on technology and the benefits of increasing capacity in this area.
Fiji has gone through many technological leaps and bounds from the 1990s till now.
While some consider our relatively small geographical size and the concentration of our population in urban areas as a disadvantage, it, in fact, makes it easier to roll out services that can connect the majority of our population.
We have nationwide telecommunications coverage enabling Fijians to make contact in seconds. We have widespread internet coverage and telecentres, even reaching remote areas. This connectivity enables us to increase our technology footprint so that more Fijians can breach the Digital Divide.
The Fijian Government is currently implementing its Digital Transformation Initiative with assistance from Singapore.
This will enable Fijians to access services such as getting a birth certificate or registering a business online, without leaving the comfort of their home or office.
All of our laws are now already fully accessible online.
Apart from these services, the more Fijians that are connected to the global knowledge base that is the internet, the more we grow as a nation.
Let’s talk about the technological developments that are coming up.
We live in a tech-focused world. The Fijian Government’s 20192020 Budget has allocated a lot of money towards technology.
$39.1 million has been allocated to the Digital Government transformation.
This will enable Fijians to access many services online and connect Government departments to each other so that co-ordination is strengthened.
The Digital Government programme includes complaints, accessibility to public officials and reform of many traditional paperbased processes to digital.
All major Government services will eventually be available online. This will speed up approval processes, business registration, land use administration, taxation and many other services for Fijians. Government is also allocating $10.3 million to the Walesi programme. Fijians can watch digital television in many areas and on the Walesi app from anywhere. The
Walesi app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times, making it the most popular app in Fiji on the play store.
With Sky TV soon to be added to the list of available channels, there is no doubt the viewership will continue to grow.
$600,000 has been allocated to bring internet connection to 50 schools in the rural and maritime areas and to create new telecentres. This ensures that as progress is made technologically, we ensure that the digital divide does not grow wider.
A large part of learning involves using a knowledge base to research any queries a person might have. There is an estimated 49.9 per cent of Fijians using the internet daily. Wired and wireless network coverage in Fiji is slated to grow to 100% by 2021.
What will all of this mean for us as a nation?
A country can only grow if our expertise grows. We need intellectual capacity development in all of our sectors. We need our relatively young population base to take on more leadership positions and make decisions that are forward thinking. Even if our universities may be behind the times in terms of technology, we can still access information from the internet to keep ourselves abreast of global innovations. The Digital Age has already begun, and Fiji is just beginning to get into the swing of things digitally. The faster we acclimatise ourselves to this, the better our adaptability will be.
In a world where everything changes incredibly fast, adaptability is a crucial need. Gone are the days where we kept doing the same thing, using the same technology for decades. Technological evolution has always been the backbone of progress. As we improve the way we do things, we enable our society to change for the better.
Until next week, have fun in the new, technologically savvy world!
The Digital Government programme includes complaints, accessibility to public officials and reform of many traditional paperbased processes to digital.