UN Resident Coordinator and Public Administration Minister Discuss Digital Transformation of Government Services

Digital modernisation that will give the people of Trinidad and Tobago easier access to government services and improve cybersecurity for government’s digital operations were key agenda items during a meeting between UN Resident Coordinator, Marina Walter, and Minister of Public Administration and Digital Transformation, Senator the Honourable Allyson West.

They met at the Minister’s office at the National Library Building on Abercromby Street in Port-of-Spain on Friday.

During the meeting, Minister West and Ms. Walter agreed it is vital to forge ahead with Trinidad and Tobago’s aspirations for digital transformation of government services.

They discussed the Government of Trinidad and Tobago’s objective of making government services more accessible to the public via electronic platforms. Facilitating data sharing between government ministries and state agencies was viewed as crucial to achieving this goal.

They shared the view that legislative reforms are necessary to create the conditions that will allow data to be shared between ministries and state agencies.

The Minister and the UN Resident Coordinator also strategised on the important role that a robust cybersecurity architecture will play in securing government data as the Government of Trinidad and Tobago accelerates its digital transformation.

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, Claudelle McKellar, and Team Leader at the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, Srdan Deric, also attended the meeting.

Data sharing and the imperatives of digital transformation will be at the centre of the UN Resident Coordinator Office’s Big Data Forum on December 1 and 2. Under the theme ‘A Smarter Future: Exploring Big Data Opportunities For Trinidad and Tobago,’ the two-day virtual event will bring together players in Big Data from government and the public sector, international companies, the local private sector, academia and civil society. Their deliberations are poised to expand data demand and supply, widening the data ecosystem available to all players to make more effective decisions that benefit the people of Trinidad and Tobago.