Philippe Gervolino, you have been Director General of the OPT-NC since 2015, previously, you served as Deputy-Director General for Digital Technologies and Planning. You participated in the development of the OPT2017 Plan since its inception and you are its strongest ambassador. What are your take-aways from this strategic plan?
Approved by administrators, the OPT 2017 plan had, through its s first axe, the ambition to reaffirm the developing mission entrusted to the OPT-NC. Even if we were not able to meet all the objectives, I believe that, in this specific respect, the plan has been a success, acknowledged by the collectivities, our partners in the country’s development, as well as by New Caledonians. If digital technologies played a central role, major accessibility projects mobilized all our areas of expertise, postal and banking services, telecommunication and agency service unit networks, to constitute an essential base for proximity public services and the fight against the isolation of populations.
These projects were made possible by our good economic performances, the second axe of the plan, as well as to the fact that that the OPT-NC now listens more closely, notably to its customers. We demonstrated our ability to fund ourselves while implementing an ambitious pricing policy and remaining a major fiscal contributor to collectivities. We also reaffirm our important role in New Caledonia’s economic landscape. However, the disruptions that occurred during the plan’s implementation leads us to question the sustainability of our model.
The plan third pillar, the internal axe was as ambitious. Considering the issues, it affirmed the necessity to transition from a resource to a company steering culture by reinforcing our organization, accelerating transversality between our infrastructures and opening up the OPT-NC on to its environment while relying on the men and women that make the OPT-NC and this plan a success to implement this transition. Improvements were made but this transformation process must be sustained in the long term and garner even more internal support.
Globally, the review of the OPT2017 Plan is positive and its vision has been implemented even if the postal bank project, for which 2018 will be pivotal, is currently running into difficulties.
April 2018.