Skip to main content

Tech in Trinidad and Tobago Budget 2022

Image
By
I didn't plan to watch the budget presentation but I did. Normally I just wait for the budget documents to hit the website afterwards. I listened from start to finish and paid attention to comments on the youtube livestream I was watching. My overall impression? I wanted to see new ideas and innovation. I wanted to see a focus on technology. The comments on the livestream let me know that there is plenty bias and persons are towing their party's line. I hold no allegiance to any political party and I am ready to criticise and commend both sides. I am ready to work with anyone that wants good for Trinidad and Tobago. Since I started voting, I have voted for 3 different political parties.


The tech related things that stood out to me from the budget are digital developer hub, national e-identity platform, tax breaks for tech startups and digital wallets. The opposition has pointed out that the Ministry of Digital Transformation has no website. I am waiting patiently for their website and online presence. They do have a facebook page that I interact with. What do we have? We have the budget, national ICT plan, a dedicated ministry, the recovery plan and igovtt. What I would love to see is a structured system to give feedback and make suggestions. Let's hear from the people. What new ideas do you have? What innovations do you propose?


I am very interested in the Digital Developer Hub mentioned in the budget. I asked the following question in the Caribbean Developers group

From TT budget document (pg 68) talks about the Digital Developer Hub. Your thoughts? How do you imagine this hub will work? How do you want this hub to work?

Some comments are saying that this is something best left to the private sector. I don't see it that way. I think it is best left to anyone who wants to do the work. So let me answer my own question. I think it is a good idea, I am glad the government is proposing to do this and I am ready to participate. I imagine the hub will be a meeting space for developers. I imagine developers will decide how the grouping functions and what we get out of it. The hub could be a major resource and support for developers. This could very well be related to Tamana Park being the Silicon Valley of Trinidad and Tobago. Local developers can be foreign exchange earners and can save us foreign exchange.


What tech projects would I like to see? What could they have included in the budget? I would like to see us making use of Tamana Park. I would like to see more locals using .tt domains. Maybe government can work with TTNIC to make the necessary improvements. I would like to see more tech startups and us looking at improving ease of doing business and receiving payments. I would like to see every ministry mandated to provide 10 open data datasets in the next coming year. I would like to see etextbooks in schools. I would like to see more hackatons. I would like to see satellite internet options facilitated and encouraged through TATT. I would like to see several tech labs across Trinbago. I would like to see a workflows platform developed for the public service. I could go on some more but I will stop myself here. Technology is a pillar of any modern society. Let's use tech to promote country development, earn us money and save us money.
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
This is great. Thank you for these suggestions, and I do hope that you don't lose faith in pushing them farther out toward those who need to hear them.

This was a great and short read.
October 20, 2021 at 10:36 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do we fix this world?

By
It is 4:39 pm and I have decided to write. It is a peaceful and quiet day. I am thinking about God, and how this life is a test. There is so much happening in this world that could make us sad. But we do not have to remain in that sadness when we put our trust in God. God wants good for us. God wants us to experience peace, and even happiness, despite what surrounds us. How do we fix this world? My friend Chatty suggests that maybe a better question is: What kind of person do I choose to be in this world? Because when enough people answer that question well, that is how real change begins. I want to be the kind of person that God is pleased with. Someone guided by God, not by ego. Someone who chooses patience over anger, humility over pride, and sincerity over appearances. I am doing reasonably well, but I am not perfect. And maybe perfection is not the goal. Growth is. Awareness is. Returning to what is right, again and again, is. I want to grow, and I will keep adjusting myself when ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hobby project - Store and view exchange rates

By
The next step in my project was to test out being able store and display the rates in a database. I decided to use nodejs and supabase for this. Everything worked beautifully. Only hickup was the following error due to my package.json not being correct. SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module Added this to package.json   "type": "module" This works beautifully. Right now I am just testing fragments of what could be part of a bigger system to see what is possible and what works and how easy to code on a mobile. There is no fully functioning integrated end to end system just yet. This is also what I tested. A serverless append-only database using GitHub + Actions + Pages. That’s basically a lightweight backend system. This was the ChatGPT prompt I used. Guide me through each step. This is what I want. A manually run github actions that adds to docs/data.json with the current date and time. docs/index.html displays all the entries in data.json. Make s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mundane

By
It is 123am and I have decided to write. I have this new idea for a book called Mundane. It would be me writing about the ordinary. We chase the extraordinary but there is beauty in the ordinary. There is beauty in the simple. There is beauty in the everyday. What about God? We often think about God in grand terms. But what if God is simple too? What if God is mundane? What if we look for God in the everyday moments? I sit in this dark room with the air conditioning on. The fan is also on. The curtain is down but I imagine the moonlight shining on the grass outside. The cats are probably sleeping. I wonder if anyone else in the neighbourhood is awake at this hour? Is there another writer around who is also writing about the mundane? The fan breeze helps the air conditioning cool me down. These nights are warm otherwise. A mosquito flies across my screen. Hello friend or foe. I cannot quite decide which one. If I had a swatter you would be gone. I check my notifications and there is an ...
Post a Comment
Read more