Two decades of CS-DRMS

Features of the week:
Relevance of the Commonwealth Secretariats Debt Recording and Management Software (CS-DRMS) is increasingly gaining attention beyond member nations, as reported by REMMY NWEKE.

The Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management Software (CS-DRMS) recently clocked 20 years of successful recording and evolving expertise in the management of debt-related crisis among its member nations and even beyond.

It was equally in the news that the CS-DRMS has its net across 56 countries globally, out of which, 44 are Commonwealth nations including some ‘dependent islands’ and Nigeria, whose debt was over N30 billion as at June 2005.

Countries and some dependent islands within Commonwealth using the software are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji Islands, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tonga, United Republic of Tanzania and Vanuatu.

Although the application of CS-DRMS is offered to all Commonwealth members as part of an integrated capacity building programme in debt management, it also includes training and advisory services, as said by the secretariat.

Presently CS-DRMS is available in English and French, enabling countries where it has been installed to enhance their tracking of debt, review options for restructuring, evaluate sources of borrowings and planning new loans.

In this way, assisting finance ministers and Central Bank governors in managing their nation’s debt more effectively, according to the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Mr. Don McKinnon.

He also pointed out that the software developed in 1980s due to avalanche of debt crisis then, which rocked Mexico and later spread to several developing nations, as well as Nigeria, saw Sri Lanka as the first to adopt the application.

Additionally, CS-DRMS, he said, records and manages different types of debt - domestic or external, short, medium and long-term. Even as it offers links to tools used for debt sustainability analysis, such as the World Bank’s Debt Sustainability model plus.

In his address to the two decade’s anniversary in London earlier this month, Mr. McKinnon said that CS-DRMS has become a tool that could help end poverty by means of better management of scarce resources, just as the “donor community is more likely to further assist countries who are able to track and demonstrate debt position very accurately”.

CS-DRMS, he noted, is a good example of partnership that works both within and outside the secretariat. Stressing its success led to the translation into French and implementation in 11 countries outside the Commonwealth, amidst 14 heavily indebted poor nations currently using the software.

Some of the non-member countries deploying this application include Benin, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, China, Guinea-Conakry, Laos, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Suriname and Thailand.

For the Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Ms. Kshenuka Senewiratne, who was a special guest at the anniversary, her country’s Ministry of Finance was able to calculate effectively the nation’s overall debt servicing commitments for the year, saying, “… It’s a clear demonstration of the pragmatic contribution the secretariat has made towards increasing public sector efficiency and effectiveness.”

Also for the Executive Director of Crown Agents, distributor of the solution, Mr. David Phillips, "Countries which use the CS-DRMS have one of the most powerful reporting and analytical tools to help them ensure that the proceeds of loans and grants do what they are supposed to.

“That is to transform financial flows into real development needs and to prevent the portfolio from becoming unsustainable within the limits of factors they could control directly," he affirmed.

With the recent deal to continue the distribution signed by Mr. Phillips and the Commonwealth Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Winston Cox, the Crown Agent chief said, CS-DRMS is an important component of his company's suite of software for public financial management, which helps countries to improve their budget financing by increasing customs and tax receipts, creating more flexibility in filling the financing gap with loans and grants.

Although Nigeria set up her Debt Management Office (DMO) since 2000, it inherited lapses from multi-agency approach charged with the responsibilities for debt servicing up to seven different agencies and government departments.

The objectives of setting up DMO, according to its Director-General, Mr. Akin Arikawe, consist of maintaining a comprehensive inventory of loans together with forecast of debt service, provision of timely and accurate information on the country's debt to assist policy makers and publishing up-to-date debt statistics so as to improve transparency in debt management.

Other objectives were to effect debt service payments accurately and on time while managing the country's debt portfolio in order to minimize cost with an acceptable risk profile, conducting risk analysis and developing appropriate risk management policies, debt sustainability analysis to assess optimal borrowing levels, assessing lending terms from various sources and negotiating best possible terms for future borrowing, and helping to inform and craft the debt management strategy with appropriate linkage to fiscal and monetary policies and overall macroeconomic management.

It was gathered that the harmonization of debt management activities under DMO and usage of CS-DRMS was instrumental to the $18 billion debt relief granted Nigeria by her creditors. This also shows the efficacy of technology solutions toward guaranteeing accountability and sustenance.

Since the impacts of CS-DRMS are obvious, it is vital that Commonwealth nations who are not yet deploying this software should make haste while the sun shines, thereby not waiting until they are highly indebted recently.

Mostly, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) should take advantage and heed the call to drastically reduce debt burden via concentrated management, in order to pave the way for poverty reduction and economic renaissance.

‘No nation succeeds without indigenous software’

Chairman, Trade and Events committee at the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Mr. Chris Uwaje, has highlighted the critical nature of software to national prosperity and security, saying, no nation can succeed in the new economic order without indigenous software.

He stated in Lagos that from a modest beginning over 50 years ago, computer software has become a critical element of modern society with global reach and impact on virtually every aspect of human endeavour.

“Software is a key enabling technology in business, industry, government, defense and permeates products and services of all kinds,” he declared.

Mr. Uwaje, who was reacting to the recent United Nations’ study on ‘Software’s Critical Role Raises National Issues’ in a piece titled ‘The State of Software Delivery in Governance’ said, indeed, “Software is critical to national prosperity and security”.

He also said that new emerging facts now validate what stakeholders have known and propagated for several years and maintained that in this 21st century, “No nation can succeed in the new economy without the incubation, development and mastery of its indigenous software knowledge-based.”

Stressing that the UN study has shown there is need for accelerated involvement of government of most nations in the World Summit on the Information (WSIS) programme agenda.

He pointed out that nation’s dependence on software raises national issues and challenges that require coherent attention.

Some of these issues, he said, would center on the understanding the value that software adds to nation’s economy; ensuring national competitiveness in the global software market place; meeting public needs for trustworthiness in critical software systems and ensuring necessary degree of security and privacy in information systems among others.

Mr. Uwaje also noted the need to have software industry and academic collaboration to improve the state of technology transition between these groups.

He insisted that software is the roadmap to Nigeria’s social and economic future, political stability and prosperity.

Stockholm collaborates with WSIS on ‘Project in Africa’

SWEDEN-based Stockholm Challenge award for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on empowerment project is spurring interests as it collaborates with the Executive Secretariat of the World Summit on the Information Society ( WSIS), specifically on Africa.

Disclosing this to Champion Infotel, the Project Manager at Stockholm Challenge, Ulla Skiden, said the partnership gave birth to WSIS Challenge Award.

Although the project manager said this would be announced officially at the forthcoming summit in Tunis on Thursday, November 17, it is open to initiatives in Africa.

These initiatives, the manager said, must be one that uses ICT to enhance livelihood opportunities, improve living conditions and support economic development.

“Projects that are eligible to compete should show that they empower people and communities by using ICT in areas such as health, education, government, business, culture and environment,” Skiden said.

The WSIS Challenge Award is an initiative of the Stockholm Challenge, the world's leading ICT award since 1995. The Stockholm Challenge is an alliance between Sida, Ericsson, The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and the City of Stockholm. It is also sponsored by Sun Microsystems and SPIDER, the Swedish Programme for ICT in Developing Regions, based at KTH.

According to Skiden, the award is designed to support the United Nations (UN) Millennium goals of eradicating world poverty, with the objective to stimulate and energize the use of ICT for human and economic development in Africa, by finding and acknowledging the best ICT for Empowerment projects.

The winner will receive 10.000 Euro to be used for further development of the project’s activities, whereas the donation will be made by SPIDER whose mission it is to promote ICT as a powerful means for poverty alleviation and human resource development.

Though the award opens for entries upon its announcement at the ICT4All exhibition, on the Central Place, on November 17, the prize giving ceremony will take place in Stockholm on May 11, 2006 during the Stockholm Challenge final event.

All projects that wish to compete for the WSIS Challenge Award will be asked to enter the Stockholm Challenge Award, which will have a special file for African participants.

“To be noticed is, that projects from Africa, already in the Stockholm Challenge, are automatically also competing for the WSIS Challenge Award. An international experts' jury will select the winner,” the manager explained.

Internet Governance still burning issue @ WSIS-05

FOLLOWING the failure to reach a consensus at the third Preparatory Committee meeting (PrepCom-3) held in Geneva, last month, Internet Governance would still be a burning issue at the second phase of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), just few weeks away.

The second phase is scheduled to hold in northern African country of Tunisia, between November 16 and 18 at the Kram PalExpo, Tunis.

This indication was given by the Communication Officer at the WSIS Executive Secretariat, Mr. Sanjay Acharya, saying that the summit would serve as the stage for key decisions on the future of Internet governance.

He stressed that negotiations are anticipated to resume prior to the opening of WSIS and are expected to be lively, “as pressure to finalise the summit output documents would bring the remaining contentious issues to a solution.

Conceived as a “Summit of Solutions” he said, the Declaration of Principles and 15-point Action Plan developed at the first phase would be translated into tangible strategies during the event.

These strategies, Mr. Acharya said, would be aimed at building a more equitable and inclusive Information Society (IS).

He also informed that the second phase is billed to host about 12,000 participants from the United Nations agencies, Organised Private Sector (OPS), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as well as leading media entities globally.

Mr. Acharya further said that some eminent personalities have confirmed attendance including the UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan.

“Final preparations are now underway for arrival of an expected 50 heads of state and government,” he said.

In addition, the Communication Officer said that the summit would feature about 250 parallel events at the three-day plenary sessions.

This, he said, would be focused on presentations and debates of relevant topics to the future development of Information Society.

Manchester scientists elucidate Quantum computers

A breakthrough has been made by scientists at The University of Manchester, United Kindgom (UK), which could herald a new type of high speed computer, known as ‘Quantum computers’.

Professor Richard Winpenny, of the School of Chemistry and his team made up of international researchers, announced the discovery of a new method which could hold the key to creating the first practical quantum computers.

If built, quantum computers would be the most powerful computers ever made, with speeds millions of times faster than the average PC for some calculations. These speeds would be valuable in factoring large numbers, and therefore extremely useful for encrypting information.

Prof. Winpenny and the research team was also reported to have for the first time demonstrated how qubit rings, pieces of quantum information, could be linked together.

A press statement from the Media Relations Officer of the institute, Mr. Simon Hunter, said the results were the outcome of three years research, opening up the possibility of being able to create quantum gates - a more advanced version of processors found in modern computers.

He quoted Prof. Winpenny as saying, "Linking these molecules not only gives us a much better understanding of how these molecules interact but it also gives us more control over how they interact, which is essential if we are to ever successfully implement quantum gates.

"This is the start rather than the finish in terms of the development of a quantum computer, but now that we have shown we can do this, it gives us clear targets."

Mr. Hunter also said that the full results of the research will be published in issue 40 of the Chemistry Journal Angewandte Chemie, and entitled: "Linking Rings through Diamines and Clusters: Exploring Synthetic Methods for Making Magnetic Quantum Gates."

The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Royal Society and the European Commission, and was carried out in association with The Italian National Institute for the Physics of Matter (Modena) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Grenoble).

Key to the collaboration is European funded Network of Excellence MagmaNet - which recently was been founded to underpin research in molecular magnetism.

Starcomms begins universal SMS service

IN further repositioning, Starcomms Limited, a leading Private Telecom Operator (PTO), has began the offering of universal Short Messaging Service (SMS) for all subscribers currently on the network.

The scheme avails Starcomms’ subscribers the opportunity to send international SMS to accessible phones in all parts of the world as well as within the country.

Starcomms’ Marketing Director, Mr. Omar Lababidi, while disclosing said in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel, said this is just another pioneering effort of the company, designed to further increase value for customers.

“They can now enjoy unlimited SMS capability internationally. On the local scene however, we have, as of now reached very close to completing interconnection with 2 operators. We hope that the other networks will also come on board very soon,” he said.

Mr. Lababidi also declared that Starcomms would be charging a flat tariff of N15 for each SMS sent either locally or internationally.

“As a launch promotion, all texts would be free to any part of the world until Sunday, November 6, 2005,” he said.

Champion Infotel recalls that this is the first of its kind by a PTO in Nigeria, and is another value added service enabled by Starcomms’ CDMA 2000 1X Intelligent Network, which facilitated the provision of a broad range of communications products and services that cater to the needs of both their corporate and individual subscribers.

The telco has consistently maintained dominance of the PTO sector in the country through the deployment of a quality network, the introduction of innovative services, and excellent customer service delivery.

The company, recently announced the attainment of the 200,000 subscriber mark, offers voice, fax and high-speed internet services on its network.

Whereas its services are presently available in Lagos, Kano, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt, all of which have a combined capacity of over 500,000 lines, just as it’s embarking on an aggressive roll-out programme that would see it going live in, at least, six additional states over the next few months.

ICT4All expo to attract 40,000 participants

A five-day Information and Communication Technology (ICT) trade fair, also known as ‘ICT4All’ for 2005, would attract over 40,000 participants including chief executive officers of private organizations, according to United Nations official.

ICT4All exhibition is organized along with the main World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

This year’s edition, holding in Tunis as part of the WSIS second phase is due to start on November 15, a day earlier before the official opening of the summit at Kram Pla Expo and to end on Saturday, November 19.

Mr. Edoardo Bellando of the United Nations Department of Public Information, said that companies from developed and developing countries would showcase innovative ideas and practical solutions, meet and forge new partnerships.

“Some 40,000 visitors are expected to attend ICT-for-All’,” he said.

He also said that corporate partners of the Tunisian Organising Committee for WSIS-05 include Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE.

Mr. Bellando recalled that in 2003 at the first phase of WSIS, 175 countries adopted a Declaration of Principles, outlining a common vision of the Information Society and a Plan of Action, which sets targets on how to improve connectivity and access in using ICT.

He noted that the main goal of the event would be to seek avenues of providing better access to developing nations to the internet among other ICTs.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the 942 million people living in the world's developed economies enjoy five times better access to fixed and mobile phone services, nine times better access to Internet services, and own 13 times more personal computers than the 85 per cent of the world's population living in low and lower-middle income countries.

ITU also estimates that 800,000 villages still lack connection by telephone line, the Internet or any other modern ICT.

Virtual University online debate takes off

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)-organised Virtual University online debate took off Monday, on Open Educational Resources (OER) and would last till Friday, December 2.

The debate being coordinated by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) an auspices of UNESCO, heralds a six-week forum on "OER: Open Content for Higher Education," which is expected to involve over 400
individuals from over 80 countries.

Information available to ITREALMS, indicated that the initial five-day session would serve as an overview focusing on the importance and benefits of using OER in higher education around the world; identification of some issues, problems and barriers that confront the further development and expanded use of OER.

First session of the debate to be moderated by Dr. Sally Johnstone of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications in the United States, set the stage for an anticipated in-depth discussions.

The discuss would have a weekly topics to be introduced and is scheduled to provide some in roads into the current state of operations, acceptance as well as the way forward for virtual university as envisioned by UNESCO under IIEP, mostly in developing countries by the time it would come to a close.

IIEP's mission is to strengthen the capacity of countries to plan and manage their education systems so as to achieve the goal of education for all by forming training partners and managers in skills to analyze and plan, manage and implement, monitor and evaluate.

It would also support institutions and improving administrative routines, organization, leadership skills, while fostering an enabling environment through policy forums, international co-operation and networking.