GovTech has remained an important event on the South African ICT industry's calendar for the past decade.
GovTech 2016, which will be held from October 30 to November 2 2016 at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, will build on the conference's longstanding theme of development and growth.
The GovTech theme this year - ICT for Development, Access and Growth - explores the potential of technology in promoting public service and delivery through advancing equitable access for all; enabling socioeconomic development and growth; and technology innovations reinventing government in the digital age.
The conference has four tracks: Access, Development, Growth, and Research & Innovation. GovTech 2016 also has different focus areas which have been identified as a subset of the overall theme - all aimed at demonstrating how the smart and effective use of technology is shaping and transforming SA's future for all.
"The GovTech 2016 conference will also look at the role of research and innovation in influencing technology (ICT or otherwise) that can make government function better while enhancing planning, and helping to build sustainable communities, profitable industries and growing economies that are inclusive and promote local/homegrown content," says Dr Setumo Mohapi, CEO of the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).
He says that this will be hosted under the sub-theme of How Technology Improves Service Delivery for Citizen Empowerment. Importantly, this theme is in line with the Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation and article nine of the Sustainable Development Goals.
"GovTech will provide another motivation for participants in the conference to consider capital and intellectual investment in R&D to produce and showcase technologies that cut across the government sectors and are essential in helping to plan and deliver services which impact positively on the quality of life of citizens," says Mohapi.
Sita is the main driver of GovTech and can be credited with growing it into the leading public sector ICT event in Africa. GovTech 2016 will also complement government's rollout of broadband infrastructure. As such, it will also explore more ways that ICTs are able to bridge the digital divide, especially in the smaller and outlying municipalities. This will facilitate the adoption of cloud computing, social media, mobile technology, television, the Internet of Things and telecommunications.
These solutions are all being integrated as part of the government's digital transformation strategy, and their importance in developing the country is enshrined in the government's National Development Plan (NDP).
GovTech 2016 will therefore explore more ways that ICT infrastructure can achieve the targets established by the NDP. This includes creating an inclusive information society, while the conference will provide an ideal platform to assess progress made at all tiers of government in meeting the imperatives of the NDP.
Importantly, the rapid adoption of ICT promotes people-centric "e-governments" with efficient public administrations, especially in healthcare and education.
The conference will discuss innovative approaches in the deployment of ICTs to provide inclusive and quality education, and their role in improving accessibility to formal and nonformal education.
It will highlight ways in which the technology facilitates collaborative efforts to create extended reliable, timeous, high quality and affordable healthcare services.
Over and above its ability to improve the socioeconomic fabric, GovTech 2016 will assess this important backbone of the "smart" cities that drive business and economic growth.
Considering ICT is the element of the infrastructure underpinning competitive economies, GovTech 2016 will continue to explore the efficacy of existing enabling conditions to stimulate sustained economic growth.
However, rapid digital transformation at both public and private sector level carries risk. For this reason, GovTech 2016 will dedicate time to ensuring a stable, sustainable environment that supports future development of ICTs. This includes its participation in protecting infrastructure and important data.
Greater confidence in ICT will drive ongoing innovation, such as cloud-based analytics, social and mobile platforms across public sector agencies to stay abreast of citizens' needs.
The benefits of these technologies will be discussed at length, as well as the combining of commercial and government Internet of Things systems to improve interaction between these stakeholders to enhance services to customers and citizens.
In addition to exploring new business and e-government models, GovTech 2016 will assess the move towards open data. By making their information available to developers to build new applications, global governments are revolutionising the way they interact with citizens.
Says Mohapi: "This year's conference will continue to inspire and motivate. No efforts have been spared in bringing about another event of the highest standard."
GovTech has remained an important event on the South African ICT industry's calendar for the past decade
Source: Business Day
