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Bandar Seri Begawan – THE internet culture is so
deeply ingrained into Canadian society that the citizens themselves
constitute the main driving force behind their government's decision to go
online.
Keynote speaker Michael Turner said at the E-Government Brunei
Congress yesterday that Canadians were driven by their familiarity with
internet services, including consumer review forums and web applications
such as online auction giant eBay, to request the shift to e-government.
``In fact, they asked: `Why don't we have the same
technology/systems for our government?'' he said. Turner was invited to
share his experiences on the e-government initiative in Canada, also known as
the Government On-Line (GOL).
The GOL project's implementation period spanned from October
1999 to March 2006, and was pronounced successful after achieving its goals
of rendering the Canadian government more accessible to the public,
improving the quality and responsiveness of civil services and providing
secure electronic data transactions over the internet. The GOL project
placed 130 of the Canadian Government's most popular services online. A
survey conducted between 2004 and 2005 revealed that 76 per cent of
Canada's population agree that the internet facilitates access to
information on their government's programmes and
services, and that 60 per cent of Canadians feel that e-mail will become
the main method of communication with their government within the next 5
years.
Turner mentioned that there already has been a significant
drop in the number of phone calls to their government's call centres, as more people are turning to e-mail. He added
that new government structures are needed to handle online support, and
stressed on the importance of making the government ``citizen-centric.''
The Canadian Federal government
personnel is currently 317,000-strong, inclusive of approximately 16,000
ICT professionals, and spends CAN$5 billion on IT annually.
Turner is a telecommunications and electronics engineer with
over 36 years of experience working with the Canadian Federal Government, and
was actively involved in the GOL project. He now offers consultations on
strategic technology management issues to both public and private sector
agencies, especially those dealing with the development of e-government
initiative.
The E-Government Brunei Congress is being held until the end
of today at the Rizqun International Hotel.
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