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Written by Tony Phelps
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Thursday, 17 November 2005 |
Is information technology (IT) important to you? Or do you regard it as
something that is merely useful, that speeds things up a little and
makes things a little easier to do? Many people and organizations fail
to see just how much they actually depend on IT to continue to function
– and this extends from the personal level to the national level.
For those people that regularly communicate via email, the loss of
access to the internet can be surprisingly isolating. It is much more
tedious to hand-write a letter and then hand-write it again for a
filing copy, as opposed to creating a Word document, printing it, and
storing it electronically.
Businesses produce letters, invoices and promotional material from
their computers, and the lack of the ability to do so can be crippling.
Any organization that maintains its accounts electronically eg. using
MYOB or Quicken will also very quickly learn just how important IT is.
A handwritten invoice is markedly less professional in appearance than
a printed one.
On a wider scale, IT continues its march into the systems that
administer, manage and monitor the country’s government. The processes
and procedures become fairer, quicker, more streamlined, and more
objective. Information is easier to find, cheating is harder to get
away with. All of this contributes to an increasingly healthy economic
system and lower cost yet more efficient government.
All this means that IT is in fact much more important to ‘normal life’
than it is generally given credit for. In turn, this means that it is
important that the general public take an interest in issues that
relate to IT. For example, Fiji is apparently reducing its import
duties on some IT equipment, and as a consequence is experiencing a
growth in computer sales, internet access and related businesses that
service these demands.
Even those people without direct access to IT, without even
electricity, are benefiting from IT as it drives more efficient, faster
and more accessible services and utilities elsewhere. It is in
Vanuatu’s interest to develop a thriving IT industry that can support
its people, businesses and government.
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