Under the project, the system will link all 15 local authorities in the State to facilitate online payment of business licences, assessments, parking compound, rental of properties, hawker licences and other miscellaneous charges.
The PELA project had commenced early this year at the Ipoh City Council (ICC), the largest local authority in Perak, with a cost of about RM400,000. According to EU-Ipoh Virtual City (EIVC)’s ICT director Saidon Puteh, the system will be linked online to other 14 local authorities. PELA is expected to undergo testing next month while the rollout is scheduled for November, he told CompuTimes last week.
According to Saidon, the PELA ICT infrastructure comprises, among others, a main server at its data centre housed at the Perak State Government’s office in Ipoh, and a virtual private network (VPN) system for the 15 local authorities.
Currently, the ICC has established a networking system aimed at making Ipoh a virtual city where its services and community information are accessible to all residents through a Multi-channel Delivery System (MDS).
It will also connect households and businesses to the information system of the city and to all community systems through the MDS. Saidon said that another ICT project of the ICC will involve efforts to enable the public to make payments to ICC via short message service (SMS) on the mobile phone.
According to him, ICC is currently looking for partners among local ICT players to implement this project, adding that the council has spoken to 10 local ICT solutions providers which have indicated interest in the project.
Saidon said the cost of project will be borne by the solution provider who will be entitled to a portion of the SMS cost charged by the telecommunications company.
Meanwhile, the ICC is expected to invite business proposals on potential innovative ICT and e-government projects from participants of the International Conference on E-Government and E-City 2005 to be held from June 13 to 16 in Ipoh, Perak.
The conference aims to bring about participants comprising government departments, local authorities and ICT companies from both the the EU and Asia.
It is to provide a platform for delegates to learn the emerging e-administration trends from successful e-government projects and discuss the future direction of e-government/e-city and smart community in Asia/ Malaysia and Europe.
This will be done through the various case studies presented at the conference.
The four-day conference includes a one-day Technical Workshop and Business Match-Making event which will be held before and after the conference.
A total of 23 speakers will present papers at the conference, among them are 14 well-known European speakers and nine Asian speakers.
Autor: Foo Eu Jin
Quelle: New Straits Times/ Computer Times, 06.06.2005
