The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) is throwing its full support behind the build-out of a digital society as government and corporates ramp up their respective digital transformation agendas.

Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Business Forum last week, Jackie Sharpe, PSOJ vice-president, said that the lobby group is so far pleased with the number of steps being taken to roll-out and/or onboard new digital services. In keeping with United Nations standards, she said the country was en route to developing the three foundational catalyst which comprised data exchange processes, a digital legal identity and digital payments.

“It is critical that we move forward on digital transformation and not only to deal with it internally, but also to be able to compete globally as all the other countries are moving ahead and we don’t want to be left behind. It’s therefore critical for us to continue our efforts in this regard as we work to transform our society,” she told the Business Observer, noting that the PSOJ on several levels has been central to the process, providing advisory and other oversight functions.

PSOJ President Keith Duncan currently chairs the National Information and Communications Technology Advisory Council (NICTAC), a unit within the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology. The entity said that in having a seat on these national boards, it is able to play a part in shaping important ICT transformation policies and in bringing various stakeholders together. The body, in working closely with other actors including the Ministry of Finance’s public sector transformation implementation unit (TIU), eGov Jamaica Limited, is further seeking to champion outcomes and to provide counsel on a number of matters concerning digitisation and technology.

Accelerated by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country’s digital transformation objectives have been significantly reconfigured, catapulting new offerings such as the Jam-Dex central bank digital currency and the soon to be implemented National Identification Service (NIDS)— both of which have become forerunner projects soliciting national take-up.

“We’re looking forward to the full roll-out of the digital currency programme, and we’ll be supporting it as best as possible. For our digital ID (NIDS), we are also putting a lot of our weight behind it— this ID is going to make it so much more efficient from both speed and cost point of views, to be able to transact and do business,” Sharpe said.

In light of the existing gaps which hampers the effective establishment of a full digital society, Sharpe wants these to be urgently addressed. To this end, she called for greater digital literacy at all levels, trust across stakeholders as well as the requisite infrastructural development, accessibility, legislative and regulatory frameworks needed to advance local efforts.

“There are lots of gaps and I think we know what they are because there are enough reports and studies done, what however seems to be the harder part is pulling it all together and to sit down to tackle and prioritise how each is to be dealt with as we work out a cohesive and single comprehensive strategy and roadmap to achieve Jamaica’s digital society status,” Sharpe said.

Executive director of the PSOJ Imega Breese McNab underscoring the need for a more comprehensive overhaul of digital strategies called for the formation of a digital policy, something she believes is strongly missing.

“One of the things we have been supporting as the PSOJ is a digital readiness assessment to identify a baseline for Jamaica and to inform what a strategy would look like. That’s, however, just one initiative that we are currently involved in as we believe that a policy is needed to drive the way forward and to have a more coordinated approach to what is being done,” she stated.

The PSOJ president said that even as the country continues to “play catch up”, the PSOJ at its most constructive level will try to be as objective as possible as it works with government and other stakeholders, and through partnerships to move the digital agenda forward.