Irish e-government needs IT graduates: expert: A senior executive at Accenture has warned that the future development of e-government in Ireland is dependent on student take-up of IT and business courses. Speaking at a recent BIS seminar in Cork, Paul Duff, senior executive with management consultancy and technology services firm Accenture, highlighted Ireland's impending IT skills shortage and noted that the importance of IT and business graduates was not limited to the private sector but was inextricably linked to the public sector. "To ensure that our private and our public services can continue to function and develop over time, we need graduates with the skills to address and manage IT," Duff said. "It is a sobering fact that while we are slipping down the European ranking, the UK is predicted to rise from tenth place to first, and the Czech Republic is predicted to move to seventh and Hungary to ninth."
E-government in Europe should adopt narrow focus: European e-government policy should focus on a small number of high-impact priorities, according to a new survey by the European Commission. In an online survey of 403 citizens and organisations across Europe, 92 percent of respondents backed the strategic approach of concentrating on a limited number of high-impact services in the years to 2010, rather than taking a broader approach to e-government. The most important high-impact services were deemed to be citizen mobility in relation to social services, such as pensions and healthcare; citizen mobility with regard to work; and public sector e-procurement. When asked about the most important objectives for a "more efficient and effective government", respondents cited an improvement in the quality of services for users, along with a reduction in the administrative burden on citizens and businesses. Lack of interoperability, organisational barriers and insufficient skills among government workers were ranked as the most significant barriers to achieving these objectives. The survey is available to download here (PDF).
Dubai citizens unhappy with online services: Two government departments in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates have scored poorly in an online user satisfaction survey carried out by Dubai eGovernment. Around one-third of survey respondents said they were unhappy with the online services of the Dubai Police Department, while 41 percent said they were dissatisfied with the website of the Department of Health and Medical Services. The customer satisfaction survey, which is due to be extended to all government departments, is part of an effort to better understand user needs with regard to e-government services. "We are going to focus on transparency, quality control and increased customer focus in the new year, and such surveys will benchmark our approach in this direction," said Salem Al Shair, e-services director at Dubai eGovernment. In December, the Dubai government said it would re-evaluate its e-government services due to poor take-up by citizens. Around 84 percent of public services are currently available online.
China gets e-government boost from EU: The European Union is to help the Chinese government to develop online government services, reports Headstar's E-Government Bulletin. The assistance is part of a four-year, EUR15 million EU-China Information Society project. The initiative will see EU member states showcasing five best-practice e-government projects across the country. The projects will highlight the integration of service delivery in a big city, the joining up of police and health services for a unified emergency response, the use of smartcards to access welfare services, the provision of services to citizens in remote areas, and changing the administration procedures for pensions. The e-government programme forms one element of a three-part effort to help the Chinese government to make better use of information and communication technologies. The other two elements involve the establishment of a legal framework to support electronic transactions and training civil servants to use ICT.
Isle of Man to make savings with VoIP network: The government of the Isle of Man in the UK is implementing a STG4 million VoIP (voice over internet protocol) network to connect up its 4,500 staff, who are spread across 180 locations, reports ComputerWeekly.com. The network will enable the government's 3,500 civil servants to access voice, data and video services at a much-reduced cost, and another 1,000 staff in the education, health and social services sectors will also be connected up to the network. The government said that the move to an IP network from a conventional network is expected to save it up to STG1.4 million a year. The network, which is being managed by Manx Telecom and Dimension Data, will be used to roll out new e-government services later this year; the first services that are set to be deployed are online tax and VAT applications.
Autor: Sylvia Leatham
Quelle: ElectricNews, 01.02.2006
