Liberia’s unrestrained quest to fully transition to the digital world remains intact under the leadership President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and the Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism is sparing no effort in taking
the message to global stakeholders at the 5th Global Cyberspace Conference held in Delhi, India under the theme: Cyber4All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development”.
On the invitation of India’s Ministry of Electronic, a high-level delegation of Liberia headed by Deputy Information Minister for Technical Services, Rixck Barsi-giah made representation on behalf of the West African nation at the global event where experts in cyber security and information technology were in attendance.
The Liberian delegation informed the participants that Liberia has a stake in the cyber dialogue especially at a time when the country is transitioning from analogue to digital age in many respects since 2012 when the post-conflict nation agreed to make the effort a national imperative.
The team indicated that despite the challenges Liberia has made strides through strategic agency responsible: the Ministry of Post And Telecommunications, Liberia Telecommunication Authority, Liberia Telecommunications Corporation, Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism (MICAT), Liberia Broadcasting System and private television stations’ owner.
Deputy Minister Barsi-giah pointed out that the “role of MICAT in digital migration stems from its mission of information dissemination, Culture promotion, and preservation as well as tourism enhancement.”
He mentioned that the country’s decision to adopt a national digital migration plan is to ensure a smooth transition from Analogue to digital terrestrial television broadcasting in the country.
“We too agree that a digital world is an inclusive world for the participation of all citizens,” the Liberian government Deputy spokesman said.
According to a dispatch, the GCCS 2017 gathering presents a unique opportunity to the world’s Cyber community to gain first-hand insight to the technology led transformation being engineered in India, and also given an opportunity to all participants to learn from experience and expert insights, as issues and case studies are deliberated, experiences shared and knowledge exchanged.
The conference aims to promote open dialogue among all stakeholders so as to create a safe secure and inclusive cyber space with the desire to foster a holistic view of cyberspace ensuring not only empowerment of individuals but also enabling the Governments to achieve national goals of sustainable development.
India is one of the key leaders in the digital and knowledge-based economy with over 50% share of the outsourcing market. The world has learned to rely on Indian talent to develop transformational solutions.
Under the ambit of the Digital India Program, today, India is relying on technology-enabled growth like no other nation before. It is also offering an opportunity for innovation in the world.
With innovative, technology-led programmes such as AADHAAR, MyGov, GeM, Digital Locker, UMANG etc, the new India is the land of technological prowess and transformation.
In remarks, the Chairman of the Conference Committee, Ravi Shankar Prasad India’s Minister for Information Technology and Law & Justice said the conference recognized that international community, including the governments, private sector, civil society, industry and technical and academic communities and think tanks, through development of appropriate legislations, strategies, skills, research, innovation and entrepreneurship, have developed significant capacities, technologies and mechanisms/frameworks to harness the vast potential of ICTs for development adding “the focus needs to be on looking beyond digitization to digital technology as means to empower people”.
He noted that a safe and secure cyber space fostering inclusivity and growth and resulting in sustainable development is the new imperative. Digital Technology has emerged as a great enabler and has paved the way for efficient service delivery and governance and should therefore be used for improving “ease of living” of people. “Freedom with reasonable restrictions in the larger interests of societies and respect for the privacy rights of individuals and groups are prerequisites for creating Cyber Space for all,” Mr. Prasad told the gathering of over 2000 delegates from 100 countries.
The goal of the GCCS 2017 is to promote an inclusive Cyber Space with focus on policies and frameworks for inclusivity, sustainability, development, security, safety & freedom, technology and partnerships for upholding digital democracy, maximizing collaboration for strengthening security and safety and advocating dialogue for digital diplomacy with the objectives of promoting the importance of inclusiveness and human rights in global cyber policy, to defend the status quo of an open, interoperable and unregimented cyberspace, to create political commitment for capacity building initiatives to address the digital divide and assist countries, and to develop security solutions in a balanced fashion that duly acknowledge the importance of the private sector and technical community.
The panel panel saw high profile speakers like Ms. Rama Vedasree, CEO DSCI, Mr. Rajat Kathuria, CE – ICRIER (Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations), Mr. S Chandrasekhar, Microsoft, Ms. Gowree Gokhale, Leader Cyber Law, Nishith Desai Associates, Mr. Vinayak Godse, DSCI, Mr. Bhairav Acharya, Facebook, Mr. Rohan Bhasin, IBM and Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, DoC while, Mr. Gautam Kapoor, Deloitte moderated the panel.
