The launch was made yesterday at the IT and Investment Ministry, where after being questioned by this newspaper, Minister Austin Gatt said that while Malta had placed second in EU rankings (behind Austria) for the past two years in the field of e-Government services, the benchmarking system was about to change.
The benchmarking process has not been formulated, but rather than services on offer, it will now concentrate on usage. “This of course has to be taken into a percentage context. We are never going to manage to beat people on clicks per page, but with 350,000 using one particular service, the numbers are there,” he said.
Dr Gatt said that while Malta lagged behind certain countries in the north of Europe for usage, it still had good numbers, adding that the issue of getting more people to use the services was an ongoing one that is part of the national ICT strategy.
The first initiative is a Government payment gateway upgrade. It features higher security and is one of the most used services with some 350,000 instances of payments being made. 250,000 of these were registered by the Malta Transport Authority alone.
The second initiative is the e-ID for companies. It was available only to individuals but has now been extended to organisations. There was a soft launch of this service and uptake so far has been of 8,000.
The third initiative is a new interactive website for the Department of Contracts. One would need an e-ID to use it but it can be updated about new tender calls, procurement proceedings as well as downloading documents securely. The new website can be found at www.contracts.gov.mt.
The e-ID is free and one can apply for it at www.mygov.mt. In addition, e-ID cards are being planned for introduction among the public by 2010.
---
Quelle/Source: Malta Independent Online, 22.01.2009
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
