PRIME MINISTER LAUNCHED IT SOCIETY OF SOLOMON ISLANDS
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare shake hands with ITSSI President Marlon Houkawara at the launch. Photo credit: OPMC.
Prime Minister Hon. Manasseh Sogavare has launched the Information Technology Society of Solomon Islands (ITSSI).
A statement by the Office of the Prime Minister says the establishment of the organization provides an excellent opportunity for the Government to obtain its professional views on the draft National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy.
The Prime Minister says the National ICT Policy would be an important document upon which legislation governing the country’s use of emerging technologies will be formed.
He says the first meeting he had with the ITSSI last week, impressed upon him the pivotal role it would like to play in help shaping this policy.
Mr. Sogavare says, national security, social order, and effective governance would be amongst many of the agendas topping the government’s list of issues that the country must be comfortable within the proposed National ICT policy.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sogavare says information technology is an effective way of obtaining and disseminating information that is both good and bad and this is a ‘policy dilemma’ that the government and ITSSI must work together in addressing to avoid ‘throwing the baby with the water.’
He says the ITSSI has a pivotal role in establishing such standards as technological advances wait for no one.