IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

This was announced during the e-Health policy and strategy three-day Southern African regional workshop at the Ezulwini Sun Hotel.

The ongoing workshop was attended by delegates from the Commonwealth Secretariat office in London and senior health officials from five countries, namely; Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Swaziland.

"In the 21st century, information that is not readily available on the World Wide Web might simply not exist at all," said Ambassador Ephraim M. Hlophe. "With his eye on the future, His Majesty King Mswati III has directed all government agencies to utilize modern technology to the greatest extent possible. As part of this mandate to promote 'eGovernment,' we decided to provide a single, easy-to-find source for Americans -- and others -- seeking to learn about the Kingdom of Swaziland."

According to the e-Government document, the country has experienced marginal growth in information and communication technology (ICT), which has seen its ranking improve by just one position.

It states that Swaziland now occupies the 145th place at the lower end of the ranking though better placed than countries in Western Africa (Ghana ranked 147 to Niger at 183). The document says competition in the African telecommunications market was increasingly intense.

The government of Swaziland is now user-friendly following the launch of e-Government which will enable people to make payments using credit and debit cards, APA learns here on Tuesday.Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini said government transactions would from now be processed from anywhere at any time without having to go to offices.

This followed the introduction of the Point of Sales facility that allow debit and credit card usage when paying for government services.

He said the system would improve management and sharing of important information and would also facilitate business within the public as well as the private sector. Dube said Swaziland would work on this project alongside the Investor Roadmap 2012.

Dr Peter Tomsu of Cisco Systems explains that the phrase Next Generation Network (NGN) describes an integrated, open network architecture that provides voice, data and multimedia services over the same network. He argues that integrated networking itself is not something specifically new citing Broadband ISDN, then ATM, and Multi Service Networks which all tried to deliver integrated service offerings.

Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have dramatically changed the learning and teaching process, and have expanded new learning opportunities and access to educational resources beyond the domain of tradition.

The minister said this sector could be doing more was e-government in use.

The implementation of this policy is moving at a snail pace and communication is still driven in analogue vehicles suggesting that Swaziland will be pushed by failure of supplies to go digital.

Like in all new innovations, this country does not participate in the initial projects undertaken by her neighbours thus making it expensive to join the bandwagon when the project is in motion/launched.

The project will be implemented in three phases with the first one involving conducting a needs and business analysis on the operations of the various government ministries and departments and the different stages at which records are generated, used and disposed or retired to the National Archives for preservation.

Government in partnership with Swazi MTN has introduced mobile based government services, dubbed m-Government.

Through this service, citizens will use their mobile phones to access services. The programme started with the ministry of home affairs, health and the meteorology department under the ministry of tourism and environmental affairs.

The m-Government service was launched at the Happy Valley Hotel yesterday morning.

On Thursday, Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Dumisani Ndlangamandla told the House of Assembly that he was not aware of any instrument stopping members of parliament from using state-owned media.

This is despite that, in 2012, his ministry, under his predecessor Winnie Magagula, who is now minister of labour and social security, is the one that introduced the Public Service Announcement Guidelines that have been used to stop the MPs from using both radio and television to communicate with their constituencies.

Addressing MPs, Ndlangamandla was quoted saying: “What is there to revoke because when I came into office there was no instrument stopping MPs from state-owned media.”

The policy was presented by the then Minister of ICT Winnie Magagula to head of government Sibusiso Dlamini and other stakeholders at a dinner held at the Royal Swazi Spa. Conference

It is envisioned that the IXP will serve as a catalyst for innovation and development of Internet services and applications in Swaziland.

A student protest on Monday drew 1,000 people to Mbabane; the protestors expressed distrust in the Swazi government and economic system, demanding widespread access to democracy and education in the kingdom between South Africa and Mozambique. More protests organised by student labour unions are planned over the next few weeks.

The website will provide users with access to documentation, e-government transactions such as on-line permits, on-line applications and on-line payments.

The Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini when officially launching the upgraded website at Sibane Hotel yesterday said, "We want the outside world to know about our government policies and programmes."

E2million of the financial assistance goes to digital photo mapping of the country, E4million for procurement of computers for the police service and E1million for purchasing steel bunk beds and base sets for the police college.

Speaking during the handover of the cheques, Ambassador of the Republic of China on Taiwan Thomas Chen said the digital orthophoto mapping is very important as the current maps of Swaziland were last updated in 1999.

Secondly, ICT often tends to lower the cost of setting up small enterprises thus, potentially, providing for additional competition. Thirdly, ICT creates the opportunity for new co-operative means of product and service delivery potentially leading to improved quality and cost efficiency. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, ICT gives rise to many new products and services.