Officially opening the First Government Information Technology Convention and Exhibition Conference (GOVCON) on behalf of presidential affairs minister Mr Daniel Kwelagobe at Phakalane Ms Tlhabologo said the portal web would break the boundaries between government departments and ministries so that all the services provided by government became available from a single point of contact.
For example, she said there would be no need for the public to go to the immigration department to apply for a passport, nor to the department of transport for a drivers license.
All these will be available from a single website interface, she said.Ms Tlhabologo said in future Batswana would be able to access government services from their offices during working hours or from their homes after work.
She said the 24-hour government services would be delivered by accessing services through the Internet and mobile phones.
It is not arguable that by achieving 24 hour access to government services we will have attained a major milestone in the development of our country, and they would have gained a certain level of competitive advantage over global competitors.
We will thus position ourselves favourable as a potential investment destination. She added that a programme such as e-government that promised a lot of high level benefits could not be accomplished without tackling some of the challenges associated with national transformation programmes.
In addition, she said key among such challenges would be the development of national ICT infrastructure that would give Botswana universal access to ICT services and the information super-highway.
She said the government was facing a challenge of transforming the civil service into an e-ready civil service that would manage and operate the e-government infrastructure.
However, she said government would continue to rely on the ingenuity of the people, and the willingness and cooperation of the private sector in driving the nation towards higher goals.
She implored on those who were in the know to help the government to deliver services to the nation in a manner that would position the nation favourably in a globalising world.
She also applauded the Maitlamo ICT Project for connecting many schools to the Internet, adding that Community Centres in rural areas were coming up.
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Quelle/Source: Republic of Botswana, 12.03.2008
