Speaking to The Brunei Times at a dinner hosted by Indian High Commissioner Riewad Warjri last night, Minister of Communications Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerma Data Seri Setia Hj Abu Bakar Hj Apong said the progress in the ICT sector between the two countries was the outcome of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed during His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam's visit to India in 2008.
The minister said the ICT cooperation was not just linked to the Ministry of Communications but also to other ministries, as well as the business sector.
He added that the trip to India was to study and understand how India was implementing ICT, not only in e-government but also in private-public partnership (PPP).
"The government is only the facilitator. It is the business sector that has to capitalise and take the opportunities given by the MoU," the minister said.
The delegation, upon its return, has submitted its findings, leading the minister to say that "we have already identified areas of cooperation".
The minister said he was very impressed by the e-government model adopted by the Indian state of Goa.
"We have been talking about PPP and have seen various models of PPP that can be followed or taken as an example for Brunei."
However, the minister said the ICT cooperation was just not confined to e-governance and Ministry of Education as capacity building was one of its important aspects.
"We need to build human resources to set any e-governance project rolling."
In this context, the minister said he would very much like to visit India and see the progress of the PPP initiative, without indicating any definite date.
Hj Mahmud Hj Mohd Daud, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, who was a member of the delegation that visited India, said the trip was a study tour of sorts.
'We studied many models but I was impressed with the citizen-centric service delivery through e-governance."
Asia Pacific of Trigyn Technologies, which is part of the United Telecoms Limited (UTL), is the company which put the Goa e-governance model in place and is already in talks with the Brunei Government.
S Sridhar, regional head of Asia Pacific of Trigyn Technologies, said the Goa e-governance model can be replicated in Brunei but there are a few challenges.
He said: "Goa is 80 per cent of Brunei in terms of area. However, as far as household density is concerned Goa has 320,000 households while Brunei has 55,000."
The other area of concern was capacity building, which require human resource. Sridhar said this was an important part of his discussion with various government agencies. He said the project would also include training the Bruneian workforce as opposed to bringing personnel from outside, which would not be economically viable.
Explaining the concept of e-governance, Sridhar said it makes government processes easier and simpler.
"It makes easier for people from far-flung areas to reach the government."
For instance, he said e-governance will make things easier for people living in Temburong, and in this way bring people in far away places closer to the government.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Asif Ullah Khan and Zareena Amiruddin
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 04.05.2010
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