Minister of Communication, Science and Technology, Mohamed Maleeh Jamaal has said that technology is empowering the people every day.

In his address on the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), Minister Maleeh said that as in the rest of the world, the use of telecommunication services is being increased day by day.

He said that our phones have become smart phones and the businesses and family relations are now on online websites and mobile applications. Service counters are turning into 24-hour service portals and business transactions are taking place through online banking, said Minister Maleeh and people are being empowered through technology day by day.

The Technology Minister said that both the government and his ministry’s aim is to service the people online through an E-Government system without queues and reducing the dependency on paper. He said that the work has started with a new aim to decentralize a number of services provided by the government to all of the public across the country.

Maleeh also advised the telecommunication providers to help better the lives of the Maldivian people by taking them to the highest step of technological ease through new findings in technology and information and communication technologies (ICT) services.

The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is marked on 17 May; to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide

The motto of the WTISD this year is “Bridging the Standardization Gap”.