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Bandar Seri Begawan – With the theme of
"Creating a Citizen-Centric Government to Achieve Excellence in Public
Service", the two-day E-Government Brunei Congress aimed to provide a platform
for its participants to share their knowledge and interact with each other,
as well as giving them an insight into the implementation and management of
e-Government via global case studies.
DZ Hampton said that government organisations
have experienced significant changes in recent years with a highly
demanding public services and reformation becoming available over the
Internet. Government portals are providing a single point of contact for
citizens and businesses to access services from different departments and
agencies.
By harnessing the power of technology, the government aims to meet
the expectations of an increasingly wired citizenry by delivering services
in a more suitable way.
Today's e-Government strategies, they said, focus largely on
adapting back-office structures to make them more citizen-centric, with
structural and process reengineering aimed at providing more efficient,
integrated services that reduce the number of steps and amount of paperwork
for citizens. In this way, e-Government has become a catalyst for organisational changes and a driving force for
upgrading skills in public administration.
DZ Hampton is a business conference and exhibition producer. Its
mission is to spearhead specialised business and
technical events for enhancing practical knowledge, skills and expertise of
business professionals, so as to keep participants abreast of the New World
Order.
Some of the case studies presented yesterday included
"Determining the Success of e-Government" by Michael Turner, Principal
E- Government Strategies, Canada. He stated that e-Government
is a journey, not a destination.
In his presentation, he noted that coordination across ministries
or agencies and levels of government is a major challenge. Canadian IM /IT
spending, he said, is approximately US$4.5 billion annually, with some 130
federal services now online.
He said c-Government provides opportunities for public
administration in many areas, adding that advanced government services
attract business investment and an educated workforce. In his presentation,
he said, 76 per cent of Canadians agreed that Internet makes it easier to
find information about government programmes as
well as services.
In the meantime, 60 per cent of Canadians think that in five years
their main method of contact with governments will be by the Internet,
including e-mail, while 64 per cent of Internet users feel comfortable
submitting personal taxpayer information online. He said-that e-Government
is part of a larger, cohesive strategy to develop and advance the knowledge
economy, adding that in Canada, provinces and many local
governments have their own e-Government programs. Canada Gol Vision is to use information and communication
technology to enhance Canadians' access to improved citizen-centred integrated services anytime anywhere and in the
official language of their choice.
He also stated that citizen and business confidence is a core
issue, including the protection of privacy as well as guards against fraud
and hacking.
Another case study entitled. "Building a Service-Oriented
e-Government IT Architecture in Denmark", was presented during
the congress by Tom Bogeskov Nielssen,
Chief Advisor of IT Strategy Division, National IT and Telecom at the
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Denmark.
Other presentations yesterday included "Delivering Responsive
Services to Citizens: From Front-End to BackEnd
Redesign" by Micheal Fung,
the Associate Director of Strategic Planning and Quality Assurance,
Singapore Management University, "Aggregating and Re-Purposing Content
for the Digital Cultural Heritage" by Philip Chua, CIO & CTO,
National Heritage Board, Singapore.
Other than case studies, the congress also included a panel
discussion "Is e-Government about People of Technology?" with Rumi Mallick, SeniorAssistant Editor, e-Government magazine, India as Moderator. The
e-Government congress continues today_ with more case studies and a panel
discussion.
E-Government means providing government services online or
electronically via Info-Communications Technology (ICT), thereby the
government services can be provided and assessed at any time and any place
24/7 by citizens (government to citizens or G2C), amongst government
entities (government to government or G2G), government employees
(government to employees or G2E) and business (government to business or
G2B).
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