5 DIGITAL BUSINESS 5.3 ACTIONS TRANSFORMING BUSINESS Demographic change, globalisation, and more recently, the worldwide economic crisis have placed strains on industry. There have been radical changes in societal patterns and technology, leading to changed business models and increased competition. The business landscape is complex but industries will always seek to identify opportunities to capitalise on. ICT can serve as an important enabler for businesses in their transformation. 12. ICT initiatives for Government, working with industry, will organise a series of initiatives for sectors facing stiff competition (e.g. manufacturing, construction and retail) to help them benefit from ICT. 13. Forum for the A forum will be established, comprising of executives from leading local firms and industry representative bodies. The forum’s mandate will be to develop programmes to raise awareness about how ICT can help industries transform themselves and become more profitable. The Forum will discuss issues such as internationalisation, eCommerce, the use of social networking as a business tool, the benefits of NGA networks, selfregulation, compliance with web accessibility guidelines, and supply chain management. 14. ICT capability A framework will be developed to enable local SMEs and co-operatives to assess their ICT capability, human capital and ICT-enabled processes and technology. This will be supported by ‘benchmarking’ and roadmaps to enable these organisations to improve performance and derive increased ICT business value from their human, technical and operational assets. 15. ICT training Government will support enterprises by administering ICT training programmes for their employees. The programmes will focus on unskilled and semi-skilled workers with the objective of improving their productivity, employability and mobility. They will also promote understanding of new business models enabled through technology. In parallel, ICT up-skilling and re-skilling programmes will be re-introduced. sectors facing stiff competition transformation of industries through ICT framework for SMEs and co-operatives programmes 34