Together with the Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecom, the government will build the network, which is exclusive for government departments, through a central electronic system. Other projects that are lined up will be facilitated community wide.
The project aims to cut out inter-departmental communication that could have otherwise circulated the globe before reaching their destinations, given the departments’ relative proximity, MIC stated.
The shift to “paperless” communications is expected to cut administration costs and increase revenue through methods such as network sharing, e-tax and e-finance, it added.
MIC Chief executive officer Paula Ma’u said the project can bring huge gains in terms of better service delivery and public access to government information. “Essentially we not only want to improve communication and coordination amongst government departments, but also be able to release timely, accurate, and complete information to the public,” she added. Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean comprising 176 islands. The scope of the network includes all main islands - Tongatapu, Vava’u, Ha’apai, ‘Eua and the Niua’s.
Other applications proposed by Huawei include e-education, e-health, e-ID system and e-surveillance for police. An application for connecting schools and main hospitals to the government data system was also raised.
Huawei first made the presentation for the e-government system to the Prime Minister Lord Tu’ivakano (pictured) late March before discussing the proposal with Cabinet.
The project will be financed through donor funds.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Pia Rufino
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 01.04.2011
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