"The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed today paves the way for cooperative activities, including joint studies and workshops on e-government, the establishment of countermeasures to mitigate any adverse effects of e-government such as the provision of support for the establishment of information security policy and technology, and also mutual human resource development in ICT through personnel interchanges," said a press release from the signing.
Signing on behalf of the government was Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT and E-Government) at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Abdul Mutalib POKSS DP Hj Mohd Yusof, while Korea's Ministry of Public Administration and Security (Mopas) was represented by its Assistant Minister cum Chief Information Officer (CIO) Kang Jyung Hyup.
Energy Minister at PMO Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Paduka Hj Mohammad Yasmin Hj Umar and the Korean embassy's Counsellor cum Charge d'Affaires (acting ambassador) Park Il were present to witness the signing held at The Empire Hotel and Country Club.
Abdul Mutalib, who is also Brunei's Overall CIO, highlighted that the MoU came with a framework for capacity building activities. He noted that since late last year, the PMO has been setting priorities and key performance indicators for the Sultanate's five-year "e-government journey" to 2014.
"One of our top priorities now are to address the challenges of ICT skills not only in specialised skills of 400 IT personnel of the e-Government National Centre (EGNC), to manage and support e-government projects, but also in basic skills to end-users within the civil service," the Overall CIO said.
According to Hjh Mariah , the government is currently in the process of training about 27,000 civil servants, on the national e-government initiative, over the next two years.
Abdul Mutalib also remarked that the MoU was a "timely response" to the national target of having at least 100 online government services ready by 2014.
"With currently at least 10 services per ministry already identified and prioritised to be made available online from now until 2014, we aim to achieve this not only through strong collaboration within ministries and the (ICT) industry, but also through collaborative efforts with international organisations and best practice model countries like Korea, among others," he said.
"One way to try to be one of the best is to learn from the best," he added.
Korea is presently ranked number one in the world in terms of e-government by the United Nations (UN).
"We welcome the partnership with the Republic of Korea to further develop in the areas of e-Government covering business process re-engineering, change management, delivery of online services and ICT security, among others," Abdul Mutalib said. "Let us move forward by coming up with an immediate two-year work plan, that will perhaps, among others, include IT specialised training programs and expert resources attachments for 2010-2012".
The Mopas assistant minister stressed that e-government should be applied as a "catalyst" to respond to public demand for better administrative services. Kang shared that Korea has been developing its e-government to "bridge the digital divide" during the past 20 years, and which has also contributed to Korea overcoming the economic crisis in the 1990s through IT development and creation of jobs and culture of transparent services for its people.
"By combining the advance technology of Korea and the rich resources of Brunei, synergy can be created to ignite more opportunities for future development," the Korean assistant minister said. "I believe this (MoU) is a very important step forward in building a solid foundation for not only e-government cooperation, but also other economic, cultural, and social cooperation between our two countries in the future," he added.
Discussions building upon the MoU were held at the EGNC between the representatives from both countries.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ubaidillah Masli and Wardi DP Buntar
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 08.08.2010
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