The Vision
New Zealand will be a world leader at using information and technology to realise our economic, social and cultural goals.
All New Zealanders will benefit from the power of ICT to harness information for economic and social gain.
This will result in changes not only in selected industries, but in government, businesses, communities and society as a whole.
Services will be more easily accessible, customised and delivered through many channels in many locations, just as banking is today.1
Government services such as health and education will be more accessible and delivered more efficiently; compliance with legal obligations will be easier and cheaper.
Communities will be strengthened by being connected to fast global communications networks, giving their members access to new services, the world of knowledge and new markets for their businesses.
New Zealanders will have easy access to their national heritage collections and to the national stock of research and science knowledge.
New Zealand's science and technology research communities will be globally connected and supported by a world-class advanced network infrastructure.
Our businesses and communities will possess the skills and confidence to utilise national and local information resources to create their own information products and services, to build social and cultural capital, and to communicate our stories to the world.
ICT will provide a set of tools to help those less well-off to acquire new skills. It will offer them new opportunities to participate and improve their social and economic well-being.
Such significant developments are not without risks. ICT has the potential to amplify existing inequalities, cause disruptive changes in work and social patterns, and give rise to new technology-based criminal or nuisance behaviours. The Digital Strategy takes account of these dimensions of technological change.
Much of the technology on which an information-empowered society depends is already in existence. The positive outcomes described above have already been demonstrated in working examples both in New Zealand and overseas. The Digital Strategy outlines how New Zealand can progress towards the ideal of all New Zealanders benefiting from the power of ICT to harness information for social and economic gain.
The Scope of the Digital Strategy
We are in a period of rapid and continuing technological change.
Over the past ten years, New Zealanders have enthusiastically embraced the Internet, mobile phones and other ICTs. Using these technologies, we can do things today that were impossible a decade ago, such as using a mobile phone to take a photograph and sending it to another phone user, managing supply chains electronically, and selling goods and services through the Internet.
The New Zealand government is determined that its citizens enjoy the benefits that ICT can bring, such as higher productivity, integrated and customised government services, particularly in health and education, and better access to knowledge for all to stimulate innovation and creativity. The 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) showed that many countries are actively working towards building what they term the Information Society, an ideal made possible by very high-speed communication networks and cheap, ubiquitous computing.
The full benefits of ICT will only be realised through the widest participation. This will require a broad-based approach that takes account of the cultural and social possibilities, rather than adopting a narrow economic viewpoint.
The Digital Strategy provides an integrated framework for existing and future initiatives, whether they are directed at encouraging the uptake of ICT or using ICT more effectively to deliver desired outcomes, such as higher productivity or better health and education.
The Strategy contains new actions for the future. It is intended to provide a direction for government policy for the medium term, and will ensure that ICT-related strategies and actions are not only co-ordinated but focused on key opportunities and challenges.
To this end, the Strategy:
- provides a context for policy by describing the nature of current technological change, its impact on society, and its potential benefits;
- adopts a whole-of-government perspective, incorporating cultural, social and economic views, and shows how they can work together in the effective use of information and ICT;
- provides a framework for existing ICT strategies, within which practical initiatives can be implemented; and
- identifies the opportunities and challenges facing New Zealand, clarifies the role of the government and defines what needs to be done to enable all New Zealanders to benefit from the power of ICT to harness information.
- The Digital Strategy is aligned with key government goals including:
- growing an inclusive, innovative economy for the benefit of all (with particular regard to the Growth and Innovation Framework (GIF));
- improving New Zealanders' skills; and
- strengthening national identity and upholding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The Origin of the Digital Strategy
In recognition of technological change and its effect on the economy and society, the government has developed various ICT-related strategies and initiatives over the past four years that include:
- e-Commerce Strategy (building business capability);
- e-government strategy (transforming government and its services using ICT as a driver);
- Education ICT Strategy (integrating ICT more fully into curriculum practice and education administration);
- the Wave Report (to define the e-health infrastructure required to provide integrated health care);
- Connecting Communities Strategy (addressing social inclusion and community building);
- National Library Digital Strategy (managing preservation of digital content, digitising the heritage collection to make it more accessible);
- Project PROBE (infrastructure delivering broadband to schools and their surrounding communities); and
- legislative reform, for example, telecommunications and e-transactions legislation (improving competition and innovation in telecommunications, and enabling electronic methods to be used to meet legal requirements).
In addition, the government announced its GIF in February 2002. The GIF identifies innovation as a key means of improving New Zealand's economic performance. A strong and well developed innovation system and culture will underpin economic growth and social well-being for New Zealand.
As ICT is an enabler of innovation and productivity gains across the economy, it was selected as one of the three GIF focus sectors, along with biotechnology and the creative industries.
The first stage in this work was the report in May 2003 of the ICT Taskforce, set up to look at the growth potential of the ICT sector and the role of ICT in the New Zealand economy. The Taskforce provided a positive assessment of the sector's future and concluded that, given the right conditions, ICT products and services could contribute significantly to New Zealand's future growth.
The second stage is the development and implementation of this Digital Strategy, which focuses on the broader issue of how ICT can enable New Zealand's cultural, social and economic development.
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