The President of TSI, Christie Christelis, was contracted by PricewaterhouseCoopers  to manage a $3.5 million three-year Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) project to develop a strategy for the ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) Sector in South Africa. The sector development strategy is aimed at stimulating economic growth in the IT and IT-enabled sectors, social upliftment and empowerment in South Africa. 

The core project team consisted of Christie Christelis as the project co-ordinating manager, a group of Canadian strategic advisors, and a South African project office comprising of four full-time staff members.   

The strategy is based on four pillars of development. The project is notable in that the strategy has been developed as part of a participative process whereby all key stakeholder groups were involved, including government, business, labour, academia and civil society. Stakeholder participation was secured through working groups, workshops and executive-level fora. Governance was provided by a South African Project Steering Committee elected by, and representative of key, stakeholder groups. 

One of the cornerstones of the strategy has been to develop the international competitiveness of the South African IT sector in selected niches. Part of this was aimed at developing an aggressive innovation strategy, and also to determine how best to accelerate the development of the two emerging IT clusters in South Africa. 

The industry strategy has been accepted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as the “IT Sector Development Framework” (SDF).  The SDF was launched by the Minister of Trade & Industry, Alec Erwin, at the Computer Society of Southern Africa’s Gala Awards Dinner on November 1, 2000. A detailed implementation plan, consisting of a wide range of initiatives covering the four pillars of development embodied in the SDF, has been developed in conjunction with the DTI, and certain priority initiatives are currently underway. 

Implementation of key SAITIS initiatives is largely being undertaken by the DTI, but the newly formed ICT Development Council, chaired by Minister Alec Erwin, and whose members include the CEOs of all of the prominent ICT companies in South Africa, has also taken on implementation of selected initiatives.  In addition, the SAITIS Sector Development Framework has been placed on the agenda of the Presidential Commission on the Development of  the Information Society.