The purpose of this committee is to allow working-level officials to decide and implement avenues of the cooperation, which will best benefit Brunei's relatively novel e-Government system and yield as much as possible from, according to the United Nations, the top e-Government system in the world.
According to a press release, the MoU signed will pave the way for "cooperative activities, including joint studies and workshops on e-government, the establishment of counter-measures 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".
Speaking to the Korean Embassy's Counsellor and Charge d'Affaires in his capacity as Acting Ambassador yesterday, Park II revealed other areas of cooperation that the two countries agreed on including policy consultation and the provision technical support as well as other e-government business-related services.
"The MoU demonstrates both governments' strong commitment to develop ICT as the key enabler of socioeconomic development," said Park Il. "Korea is well-aware that ICT is placed at the forefront of the Brunei Vision 2035 and the RKN 2007-2012 (and) stands ready to share with Brunei its experiences and best practices obtained in the process of e-Government strategic developments over the past four decades."
The Korean Government is currently in the final stages of its own e-Government implementation, which is to integrate all ministries, the central and local government, as well as government and the private sector.
According to Park II, Brunei's Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's Office, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (R) Dato Seri Paduka Hj Mohammad Yasmin Haji Umar, has also expressed his interest for all ministries in the Sultanate to be connected "very soon".
Meanwhile, the Korean Government has been providing training opportunities to IT practitioners from over 100 countries and it's expertise in practical mechanisms for online civil services of various government functions, such as e-procurement, e-custom clearance, e-patent, e-census and e-commerce, can serve to expedite Brunei's implementation.
The counsellor, however, shared his reservations on a few of the current basic infrastructure that Brunei still needs to improve. "Broadband penetration in Brunei is still under five per cent," he said. "Brunei needs to scale up its Broadband penetration in order to have a very efficient e-Government system."
However, it is not without its upside as he added that the Prime Minister's Office's plan to empower 400 IT personnel of the e-Government National Centre with specialised skills is "a timely and significant measure in the right direction".
Park Il also believes that investment opportunities are abound with the new cooperation. "If there are opportunities for Korean companies we would definitely like to invite them to Brunei for possible investments here in the future," he said.
The five-year MoU came into effect last Saturday (August 7) following the Summit Meeting between His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and President Lee-Myung Bak in June 2009 in Jeju Island, Korea, during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the areas of ICT.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Narissa Noor
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 10.08.2010
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