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Three key IT strategies to propel Brunei: Pehin
Zakaria Courtesy
of By Suriani Garip
The three
key IT strategies include a national drive towards paperless or information
society, the public sector drive towards electronic government and the
private sector drive towards electronic business. He was speaking at the official opening of
Conference on New Information Technologies with the theme "Virtual
Information: The Dawn of A New Era" at welcoming dinner held at the
Orchid Garden Hotel in Berakas. The minister underlined, "The phenomenal
growth of the Internet brings about tremendous opportunities on how we
conduct our daily lives, our businesses and social interaction. The
government has placed a great emphasis on the development of IT
infrastructure in the country. A high quality nationwide broadband network,
the RaGam 21, has become operational. "This has resulted in a fairly high degree
of IT diffusion in almost all sectors of the economy. New initiatives are
underway such as providing government services on-line, with international
connectivity through submarine cables and satellites," continued Pehin
Dato Zakaria. He stated that this infrastructure has paved the
way to enhancing Brunei Darussalam's competitiveness in the global ICT
sector. "To further leverage our strength in the infrastructure, the
Government had created the Brunei Darussalam National Information Technology
(BIT) Council to lead and facilitate the strategic development and diffusion
of the state of the art IT and to exploit IT to its full potential,"
added the minister last night. With regards to the national drive towards a
paperless society, he believed that IT offers opportunities for building
stronger and competitive communities through improved access to global
information. He emphasised, "But first there is the need
to address the low level of skill, penetration and supply of ICT. Among its
immediate tasks, the BIT Council will drive IT Literacy Campaigns and regular
programmes to close the Digital Divide between 'information rich' and
'information poor' so that every segment of our communities are able to use
and have access to it.
Meanwhile, on the public sector drive towards an
e-government he said the e-government programme has been identified as a top
agenda in line with the 21st Century Civil Service Vision. "The government is committed to provide all
appropriate information and services by members of the public or businesses.
An executive committee under the chairmanship of the Permanent Secretary of
the Prime Minister's Office has been tasked to advance IT diffusion in the
public service or activities currently being undertaken by various ministries
and government agencies," he revealed. On the third key strategy, the minister believed
that e-commerce has the most potential for growth and penetration.
"Therefore, the private sector must realise that IT diffusion should be
taken seriously in doing business locally, regionally and globally. The BIT
Council through a committee led by the private sector is formulating an
action plan for the promotion, e-marketing and e-shopping." Pehin Dato Zakaria stated that the aim is to
accomplish the status of an electronic business society by the year 2004. He added the BIT Council is in the process of
setting up an International Advisory Panel (IAP) comprising of IT experts
from overseas. "The Panel is expected to play a key role in
advancing IT-led economic growth of Brunei Darussalam. the formation of
Brunei Darussalam's Information Technology Corporation (BIT Corporation), an
incorporated government owned body responsible for the IT and ICT investments
in Brunei Darussalam, will be one of the flagship projects in jumpstarting
the development of ICT activities in Brunei Darussalam. He also said some priority issues that should be
taken into account in bringing Brunei Darussalam into the new era of IT. He underscored, "The government alone
without the full support and close cooperation of the private sector will not
be able to handle all those issues effectively." The conference will be
held at the Central Lecture Theatre of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD)
starting from July 22 (yesterday) to July 25. Today, Dato Paduka Haji Hazair Haji Abdullah,
Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, will be presenting a
keynote address and officially launch the opening of the Exhibition of New IT
Products held in conjunction with the conference.
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