IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Digital transformation is accelerating at breakneck speed around the world. Many countries have been investing in digital transformation and designing national strategies to establish digital infrastructure and develop a digital economy. They understand that powerful digital infrastructure and a robust digital economy are key to navigating the complexities of digital transformation and enhancing their competitive edge. ASEAN remains one of the world's most vibrant and fastest-growing economic regions. The burgeoning digital economy in this region continues to grow.

Thailand, situated at the heart of ASEAN, has been leading the development of the digital economy in the region and boasts the second largest economy there. In 2016, the government of Thailand announced their Thailand 4.0 strategy, a 20-year plan for national economic and social development. The strategy aims at leveraging innovative technologies to promote high-value-added businesses, pull the country out of the middle-income trap, and enhance its overall competitiveness. The government is pushing forward digital transformation to promote industry transformation and transform Thailand into a high-income country.

The adoption of cloud computing in the public sector across the European Union is being held back by worries over how sensitive data can be secured, according to a report by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA).

The report notes that, while some EU states have adopted comprehensive cloud strategies and encouraged public-sector organisations to shift services to the cloud, where appropriate, others have made little or no headway.

The digital economy’s data must stay in Việt Nam instead of being stored elsewhere by foreign players, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng at a ceremony to promote cloud computing and digitalisation held in Hà Nội yesterday.

The minister said cloud computing will play a key role in the future’s digital infrastructure and must be a top investment priority in Việt Nam’s digitalisation strategy and socio-economic development.

The EU Digital Single Market is a regulatory framework that will help the region remove national barriers to online transactions. It builds on the concept of the common market, intended to eliminate trade barriers between member states.

The strategy, dubbed Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe, aims to deliver a net gain of 2.5 million new jobs across Europe and a total GDP increase of €160bn (£127bn) a year, by 2020.

It said that the economic benefits of pan-European action were far better than individual initiatives but encouraged EU countries' efforts with their own cloud programmes.

This MENA region includes nations like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are at the forefront of digital innovation and development. Even though the MENA area is known for its political tensions on a global scale, it has managed to lead the way in technological advancement and digital transformation. The density or penetration of the internet has reached close to 100% in many countries of the MENA region. This demonstrates how the area continues to compete on a worldwide scale in both technology and business. The Middle East cloud apps industry is something to keep an eye on since tech collaboration in these areas appears to be at an all-time high.

The meeting was chaired by the Ministry of Finances and Public Administration, thus giving the project and the above announcement an unprecedented political backing.

Complex backup and recovery in the cloud, inefficient cloud storage and employees' use of unauthorised cloud services all account for cloud's hidden costs.

IDC released an IDC MarketScape evaluation report on Chinese e-Government cloud market and vendors. Huawei Cloud e-Government Solution lands in the Leaders quadrant with dominating strength. Specifically, this product is recognized for its advantageous comprehensive strength and a future-proof strategic layout. According to the report, Huawei Cloud e-Government Solution claims the top spot in three major dimensions: current capabilities, strategies, and market performance. The result shows the industry's recognition of Huawei Cloud.

On April 3, 2020, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) issued Official Letter No. 1145/BTTTT-CATTT to provide guidelines on a set of technical criteria and specifications for cloud computing solutions for e-government deployment (the “Guidelines”).

State agencies and organizations will rely on these Guidelines to assess and select solutions or lease cloud computing services for the development of e-government. Private-sector entities are also encouraged to refer to these Guidelines when setting up and deploying their own cloud computing platform solutions.

Today, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) have become big business. Throughout the 2020s, Harvard Business Review[1] estimates that these technologies will add $13 trillion to the global economy, impacting virtually every sector in the process.

One of the biggest drivers of the value-add provided by AI/ML will come from smart cities: cities that leverage enhancements in such technologies to deliver improved services for citizens. Smart cities promise to provide data-driven decisions for essential public services like sanitation, transportation, and communications. In this way, they can help improve the quality of life for both the general public and public sector employees, while also reducing environmental footprints and providing more efficient and more cost-effective public services.

Today, the question isn't whether or not to migrate to the cloud – it is more a case of how economies should be managed to leverage the maturity of this resource and truly benefit from efficiency.

This is according to Antònio Nunes, CEO of Angolan multinational telecommunications services provider Angola Cables.

The paper, which offers a detailed analysis of potential benefits and costs associated with the technology, suggests not buying into the hype before looking at the hidden costs and making a detailed economic plan first. “Users who have been in IT for a long time know that, no matter what new innovation comes along, the challenges of managing IT (e.g., security, cost, complexity) never go away — they just take on new (and sometimes dangerous) forms,” the paper reads.

Singapore Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC) is heading the project with support from Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant Chief Executive of IDA, said to FutureGov Asia Pacific: “We have commenced discussions with ITSC to work on areas such as cloud security, service level agreements and virtualisation.”

The visiting delegation included Jamal Maddi, the IT director, Mohamed Ibrahim Al Saigal, the acting director, Government Communications Department and Fouad Mohammed Nabih, the system analyst. The meeting was attended by Ahmed Ismail, the chief information consultant and Manal Al Affad, E-Services Coordinator at the General Information Authority.

Cloud guidelines for Austrian government

Digital Austria, the coordination and strategy committee of the Austrian Federal Government for eGovernment developed a position paper on cloud computing for public sector. It was a joint effort of stakeholders from various government levels, application owners, and solution providers.

As ASEAN nations are quickening digital transformation to achieve their new missions for the digital age, various agencies and tech titans are building new plans to meet regional growing needs.

“Going onto the cloud is like a young person leaving home for the first time. It is full of freedom, excitement and anxiety. It is also full of risks, fear and uncertainties.” The words came from Chan Cheow Hoe, chief digital technology officer at the Government Technology Agency of Singapore, at the AWS Public Sector Summit earlier this month.

Deployed well, data can empower tactical initiatives, streamline operations, clarify strategies across the organization, and help meet the fluid expectations of customers. But breaking with the past and pivoting towards a data-driven future is often easier said than done.

What strategies and approaches have worked for Asia Pacific firms in their journey to successful digitalization and deriving more value from their data? At a virtual event with Snowflake and CDOTrends, participants discussed their data strategies, the impact of the ongoing pandemic on digitalization, and why the cloud is perfect for facilitating data-centric initiatives and capabilities.

The government's Policy for E-Government and the Digital Economy, released in August while in opposition by Malcolm Turnbull, now the Communications Minister, stipulates that agencies will use shared or cloud services where minimum efficient scale hurdles are not met, with a default expectation that private or public cloud solutions will be used whenever efficient scale is not achieved at an agency level.