Curaçao as a Smart Nation: challenges and opportunities

The digital economy is emerging around the world. It is only a matter of time before it is rendered permanent. The economy and society of the developed and developing countries are greatly digitalized and the countries that are not will have a hard time participating in the world economy in the near future.

As a small island developing nation with few natural resources, Curaçao was forced in the past to look for alternatives to develop a stable economy. However, in the coming era, our lack of resources will not form an impediment for us to optimally exploit the existing potential, because data have become the new oil and the main driver of our economy. A unified vision of our future and intelligent policy making by the government, together with the private sector, will lead to Curaçao belonging to the Smart Nation category within the foreseeable future.

Smart Nation

What does Smart Nation mean? The principle of a Smart Nation is based on the concept of a country using multiple ICT-solutions to deliver fundamental services to its citizens in areas such as information and communication services, education and upbringing, healthcare, commercial and financial services, energy supply, telecommunications, security, law enforcement, waste management and other vital public services. The Smart Nation philosophy aims to rally collective efforts of population, businesses and government to work together to improve the quality of vital services to our community.

Development model

Implementing the vision of “Smart Nation: Curaçao objectives beyond 2020” is not an easy task. It requires a multi-disciplinary working environment as well as the deployment of the necessary resources and skills. A turnaround of the present business models of entities, corporations and markets is required so that these can function in an efficient society. This implies a strategic deployment of investments in technology to create a digital infrastructure with a tech-savvy population and workforce.

Preconditions

The ambition to realize the vision of “Smart Nation: Curaçao objectives beyond 2020” goes hand in hand with far-reaching challenges, where the following need to be taken into account, among other things:

• Achieving a Smart Nation requires hyper-connectivity that demands an unprecedented amount of private data from our citizens, high speed broadband and reliable power supply.
• There is a responsibility for stakeholders of both the private and the public sector to ensure that the implementation and use of technology is realized in a sound manner.
• Required investments in technology to create a digital infrastructure.
• Required investments in improving management skills, good governance and leadership, knowledge management and a proper definition of the critical success factors for smart “island” development.
• Within the government, the empowering of competences, both internally and through outsourcing.

In short, the implementation of the Smart Nation concept is not possible without the private sector and strategic investments.

Policy consequences

The implementation of the Smart Nation principle also has policy consequences that must be considered, among others:

• A highly interconnected economy and society goes hand in hand with safeguarding privacy and security.
  An adequate policy of ownership pertaining to infrastructure.
• Safeguarding privacy protection for all citizens and end-consumers.
• Adequate cyber security and internet crisis management. This includes: cyber security, data center capabilities and disaster recovery protocols for how to deal with internet induced crises.
• Incentives for innovations and investments in state of the art infrastructures.
• The traditional model of single ownership of all network elements is steadily countered.
  A convergence of one single infrastructure with new smart technologies such as the Internet-of-Things and Big Data will inevitably result in a close collaboration with our digital society.

BT&P regulatory authority and catalyst

As a multi-sectoral regulator, Bureau Telecommunicatie & Post (BT&P), is aware of its role in the realization of the Smart Nation principle. As a public entity it can take the initiative to manage the present economic growth methods and technological developments and how these are applied.

Led by the CEO of BT&P, Mr. Franklin Sluis, the organization of the conference “Smart Nation: Curaçao objectives beyond 2020”, on 8 and 9 September, has been the first step towards promoting the implementation process within the broader context of the region.

The conference was attended by 260 visitors, addressed by 13 speakers, both national and international, with ample expertise. Among the sponsors and exhibitors were: Huawei, Microsoft, Inova Solutions, NuCapital, UTS, Aqualectra, Flow, Bearingpoint, MCB, CINEX, CAP, Space Platform, Antraco, Gisspider and AMS-ix.

With conferences such as this one, BT&P aims to create a platform for the region on which promotors can share their thoughts and take action towards the realization of the Smart Nation concept in Curaçao.
By doing this BT&P chooses to be at the forefront of a growing regional movement. Or, as Mr. Sluis said during his opening speech: “Because of the unique position of BT&P as a regulator for the telecommunications sector and internet security, as a result of developments in the field of ICT, we are required to be at the forefront of understanding and promoting technological innovations”.

On 28, 29 and 30 November 2016 a conference by CINEX in collaboration with BT&P will be held with the theme: “CINEX Smart Investment Summit 2016”. Following this, BT&P will engage in multiple initiatives in the forthcoming years, with the objective of jointly further advancing the irreversible regionally-focused process of achieving a Smart Nation.

(BT&P Publication period: 2016)