All 20 dzongkhag administrations now have broadband internet access, with leased line connections being established in Dagana and Gasa yesterday.
With nationwide administration broadband connectivity achieved, the government has achieved establishing a comprehensive intranet that will enable nationwide e-governance, at least in theory.
Dzongkhag administrations can now connect to the Thimphu wide area network (WAN), which links all the various ministries and other government agencies in Thimphu.
“Infrastructure wise, Bhutan is ready,” said department of information and technology’s (DIT) ICT officer, Karma Wangdi, on the country’s e-governance capability. With the 2 mbps (megabits per second) connections installed, officials in the two dzongkhags will now have the capability of receiving and transferring large amounts of data in less time, and also conduct online video conferences with Thimphu.
Dagana and Gasa were the last to be connected because of a lack of point of presence (POP) facilities at the dzongkhags. POPs are infrastructure that house modems, servers, routers and other kinds of communication equipment that local users can dial into to connect to the main network backbone.
Meanwhile, the director for DIT, Tenzin Chhoeda, said “intense work” would be required to achieve the government’s goal of providing 75 percent of all public services online by 2010.
The director acknowledged challenges existed. Applications, like online registration forms or do*****ents that will be used on the e-platform are yet to be designed. The e-platform was launched last month and is a base system on which organisations all over the country can use to develop applications for their online services.
“We don’t have the human resources to design these applications,” said the director. DIT has only about 10 staff that work on application development. But, he said, DIT was currently working on collaborating with private agencies to develop these applications. “We want to take onboard the private sector to not only develop but also use the applications and e-platform,” he said.
Asked how realistic was the goal of achieving 75 percent of public services online by 2010, the director said, “All the major work has been completed, now the various sectors have to start using it for their services.” He said the goal would be achieved, but added, “by the end of 2010.”
30 applications have to be developed by the end of 2010 to achieve the government’s goal.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Gyalsten K Dorji
Quelle/Source: Kuensel, Buhutan's National Newspaper, 12.08.2009
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