The Government Office last week announced that chairmen of provincial-level people’s committees will attend the government’s socio-economic discussions via video-conferencing systems from late this month.
The move aims to realise the e-government targets of saving time and money and improving the efficiency of government operations. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) to install video-conferencing equipment in offices of people’s committees across the country.
“The system is ready in all 63 cities and provinces, allowing representatives of the most remote areas to attend video conferences with no differences whatsoever in quality from their counterparts in major cities,” VNPT’s deputy general director Phan Hoang Duc said.
However, Duc said savings would vary among different organisations and meetings. Government experts calculated that investments in video-conferencing may enable cost savings only if the organisation holds over 15 video-conferences each year, the distance between the most remote attendees is over 300 kilometres and the number of attendees for each meeting is at least 300 people.
“Video-conferencing can really result in huge cost savings, up to billions of dong per year as in the case of the educational sector,” said Quach Tuan Ngoc, head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s IT Department. Ngoc’s department organised dozens of video conferences in 2008 for up to 800 attendees at a time.
“Organisations that hold video conferences on a less regular basis should rent the complete service including network connection, equipment and even meeting points from service provider rather investing in their own system,” Ngoc said. Another option is to invest in cameras and displays, not the multipoint control unit and network connection, as those are the costliest items.
Deputy minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong said the ministry would conduct further research to instruct government bodies on how to invest in and organise video-conferences. Duc said VNPT had prepared all necessary commercial services for video-conferencing to serve state and private organisations with different demands.
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Quelle/Source: VietNamNet, 22.03.2009
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