Urban and Rural Development

 Policy Statement 

The government shall facilitate the development of the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and its utilization with other IT facilities for urban and rural area development.

 Objectives 

1. To develop digital master plans for our cities.

2. To improve rural area development and management.

3. To reduce the trend of rural to urban migration.

4. To achieve environmentally clean cities and rural areas.

5. To generate IT related jobs for urban and rural youths.

6. To introduce the benefits of e-governance to urban and rural communities.

7. To make tools available to predict environmental problems in advance for necessary action.

8. To promote the development of rural IT facilities.

9. To promote the proper documentation of ownership of land and property in urban and rural areas and the transformation of dead property assets to capital.

 Strategies 

1. Creating environmental networks.

2. Organising enlightenment campaigns about IT amongst city and rural area planners.

3. Developing the GIS technologies for use in urban and rural areas for planning and design.

4. Re-training the present core designers and planners for relevance in the information era.

5. Establish rural internet resource centres with VSAT capability where such communities can have access to IT and the Internet and information on the following;
   a. government programs,
   b. local news and weather details,
   c. land and related administrative records,
   d. government license and related documentation application on-line,
   e. local commodity prices and on-line transactions.

6. Developing community tele-centres for boosting the socio-economic activities in the rural areas.

7. Establishing IT facilities in rural areas through the use of Mobile Internet Unit, Community Tele-Centres, etc using satellite, wireless, HF-radio and cellular technologies.