E-procurement on the rise in Ireland: The Irish government's Department of Finance has revealed that its electronic tendering website, Etenders, is growing in popularity. The number of suppliers registered on the site has risen by 21 percent over the past 12 months to 24,339 by May 2005, while over 2,000 awarding authorities are now registered, up from 1,500 a year ago. Monthly visits to the site now total more than 80,000. The Department of Finance attributed the rise in the site's popularity to an awareness campaign that it ran to promote e-procurement and to encourage public sector bodies to migrate their tenders online. The department also noted that small- to medium-sized businesses were now more aware of the site, which is free to use, and of the types of contracts tendered on it. The most popular sections of the site are construction, professional and consultancy services, and ICT contracts.
Irish government launches Public Services Broker: The Irish government's Public Services Broker (PSB) is now complete and Reach, the agency responsible for the e-government backbone, has started recruiting public services for the system. The PSB is a computer infrastructure project that will allow government departments to interact both with one another and with the public. The PSB enables government departments to link up their disparate computer systems, giving citizens an integrated and efficient point of access to government services. The project was launched in 1999 and has had to overcome a series of challenges over the past six years to reach this stage. The official launch of the PSB will take place towards the end of the year, once a critical mass of services are available through the PSB's portal, Reachservices.ie. For more on this story, see ElectricNews.net.
UK government is tops for IT spending in Europe: The UK is spending more on public sector ICT than any other European country, according to a new survey by market analyst firm Kable. ICT expenditure across Europe is set for slow but steady growth over the next two years, according to the report, titled "ICT Spend in the European Public Sector." Total spending this year will amount to EUR87 billion, reaching EUR94 billion by 2007. The UK accounts for an estimated 23 percent of the total for this year, or EUR21 billion, a figure that is 40 percent higher than the amounts spent by Germany or France. The UK spending is largely being driven by major investments in e-government and back office infrastructure, says Kable, and includes major IT projects like the Connecting for Health initiative, the Criminal Justice IT programme and the Defence Information Infrastructure. To purchase a copy of the report, visit Kablenet.com.
E-gov progress vital to Korean economy: IBM: Korea must make progress with e-government in order to improve its business environment and to create new opportunities for the private sector, a senior executive at IBM has said. Jeffrey Rhoda, head of IBM's e-government services division, told the Korea Herald that e-government "is not only about providing better citizen services, but enhancing effectiveness of the partnership between government and the private sector and creating a policy environment that allows business to thrive." Rhoda noted that boosting efficiency through e-government is a vital part of economic policy these days, especially in developed countries that are challenged by moderate economic growth, tight budgets, increasing social costs and growing competition on a global scale. He also stressed that increasing flexibility is the key to successful e-government. "The government must not only respond better to social changes but be flexible enough to adapt to the changes in the world economy and competition among countries."
Perak aims to become 'knowledge state': The government of the state of Perak in Malaysia has launched a strategy to transform Perak into a "knowledge state" by 2020. According to a report by Malaysian newswire Bernama.com, the plan will be rolled out in two stages and will focus on three areas: knowledge infrastructure, knowledge economy and knowledge society. A total of 25 initiatives will be put in place to support the strategy, whose mission is to make ICT the bedrock of the Perak economy. One of the targets of the plan is to have a broadband network installed in all government agencies by 2006; other goals are to have 63 percent internet penetration throughout the state by 2010, internet kiosks in all town centres and 40 percent e-mail usage in rural areas. The government also said that it wants to establish Perak as an attractive location for outsourcing, shared services centres and call centres.
Autor: Sylvia Leatham
Quelle: ElectricNews, 01.06.2005
