“We have seen trends of centralisation and decentralisation coming one after another like a pendulum,” Mak says. “But it is not history repeating itself here. The notion of moving backwards is only conceptual, at the actual level there are a lot of things we could leverage.”
The government will be adopting cloud computing model incrementally in Government to implement different initiatives for: – Enhancing overall agility, productivity and efficiency in public services delivery – Providing convenient and coherent customer experience across different service channels – Providing service platforms for shared services, applications and data – Reducing costs as workload can be allocated flexibly and dynamically – Reducing overall carbon footprints and environmental impact – Fostering industry development
The government is also creating an initial SaaS Portfolio of shared Government applications and services, including electronic information management, human resources management, paper-less meetings, and so on.
“Cloud computing will increasingly become the main stream of government service delivery,” Mak says.
OGCIO has a mandate to create synergy among the services delivery of different government bureaux/ departments, which is achieved by formulating the Pan-Government IT Strategy to provide comprehensive and overarching IT directions and strategies.
Hong Kong government manages an IT portfolio of more than 3000 staff (half are civil servants), HK$200 million capital spending per annum, 25 data centres of different sizes, 500 ongoing projects with 200 contractors, and 392 government WiFi hotspots for free public access. Currently there are over 50 IT units serving different bureaux and departments.
Mak took over the post of GCIO from Jeremy Godfrey, who left the government in February this year. To achieve its goal, OGCIO has identified 10 major initiatives in three categories: standards and governance, IT platform and infrastructure, as well as business change.
Mak shared detailed of four of the initiatives, including Reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI), new e-Government Applications Hosting Infrastructure, mobile & wireless e-government services, as well as Electronic Information Management (EIM).
A pilot PSI scheme, data.one.gov.hk, will be launched on 31 March, sharing GIS data of government facilities in addition.
While opening data to the public is not new (Hong Kong has been sharing property information with the private sector and general public for many years), Mak says formulating a policy to systematically do that requires a lot of effort.
“You might ask me why we do it modestly, sharing only two types of data in the beginning,” Mak says. “But we have to consider that for each data set we share, the relevant department need to make sure of the currency of the data and take liability when the data is used. They also have to protect the integrity of data and ensure privacy of personal information.”
“Therefore government departments and bureaux need to be very serious about electronic records management and keeping,” he adds.
The government is also building a new shared e-government application hosting platform for new G2C and G2B online applications to enhance the overall agility in delivering e-government services. The capital funding of HK$135 million dollars has been approved by Hong Kong’s legislature and discussions with the funding office on details will commence in mid-April.
To respond to the trend of growing mobility and use of wireless devices, the government is also developing a comprehensive strategy for actions covering the architectural, infrastructural, interoperability and security considerations. It will also facilitate adoption of related technology.
“This will allow 150,000 civil servants in Hong Kong to better communicate and collaborate with their colleagues,” Mak. “It will become a very important part of the government’s daily work.”
Unified communications and collaboration services have been installed in the new government headquarters, which will be launched in the second half of the year. Mak believes that concrete products on mobility will be worked out over the next few months.
EIM Strategies and Programmes across Government will see the adoption of a more holistic approach in information management using electronic means and enhancement of each organisation’s overall capacity.
Mak says it took the Office and a number of other departments almost 10 years to formulate the EIM strategies. “A lot of work had to be done, a lot of studies had to be undertaken, and a lot of positioning had to be identified,” he elaborates. “With the hard work of my colleagues as well as departments such as the Government Records Office & Government Efficiency Unit, we now have a robust EIM strategy, which will be implemented over the next two years.”
The government is also reviewing all of its data centres for efficiency and also carbon footprint. “We hope to be able to finish most of the 10 initiatives within five years,” Mak says, adding that a major review will be conducted during the third year.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jianggan Li
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 30.03.2011
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