How some countries are using their budgets and smart tech to do EXTRA for their citizens
On MTBPS day, futurist Graeme Codrington discusses examples of governments going beyond the balancing of the budget to do more more for their people.
Man on cellphone, woman with smartwatch. Pexels/Kampus Production
The Finance Minister's Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) dominated local headlines on Wednesday.
Full of stats and figures, some of them not very encouraging, the mini budget set out how Treasury will have to make some difficult trade-offs to accommodate South Africa's priorities.
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What if our government was in a position to do extra, interesting things for us and not just try to ensure that we have access to basic services?
Futurist Graeme Codrington (TomorrowToday) comes to The Money Show on MTBPS day armed with some examples of countries that are doing exactly this.
"I think it helps if you've got that economic engine going and the government's got a bit of surplus to then move beyond just dealing with essential issues."
Graeme Codrington, Futurist - TomorrowToday
Codrington highlights Estonia's e-citizen project, which he says registers every person even before they are born (even suggesting possible names for the new baby).
Each citizen's ID number allows easy access to every government department from then on.
"This includes, for example, registering for schools or getting a lifelong phone number."
"I think the government of Estonia would say that this number allows you to do EVERYTHING."
Graeme Codrington, Futurist - TomorrowToday
Singapore also has a central data base which allows for special services.
The 'Smart Nation' programme helps citizens to stay healthy, for one.
"The idea is that all the different devices you have are connected to this centralised data base, and it's particulary smartwatches they want connected."
"The system is designed to keep citizens healthy, pretty much like what schemes like Discovery Vitality are trying to do for us... but it's government doing this for EVERYBODY, not just the private sector for people who can afford it."
Graeme Codrington, Futurist - TomorrowToday
Of course, the issue of trust does come into play, Codrington acknowledges.
"There's obviously the opportunity for a bit of over-control by government, so there have to be boundaries put around that and more trust than we might have in our own government at the moment."
Graeme Codrington, Futurist - TomorrowToday
Scroll up to listen to this fascinating conversation