Sanjiv Mind, who delivered the keynote speech during the opening of the International Conference on e-Government and Administrative Simplification, said governments had tendencies to focus more on introducing [CT infrastructure in all aspects of government.
However, this diverted attention away from one of the main purposes of implementing e-government, which was to make the government and its services more accessible to the stakeholders and increase its efficiency, he pointed out.
"The challenge is asking yourself, 'what is the best way to use the technology to provide better, faster and more efficient services?'," said the United Nations Director of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Haiyan Qian.
This was a view shared by the chairperson of the conference's organising committee, who is also the deputy permanent secretary (IT and e-Government) at the Prime Minister's Office.
"E-government is not simply a technological issue. E-government is more than technology. It is a venue for meeting multi-stakeholders' needs in an efficient and timely manner," said Abd Mutalib POKSSDP Hj Mohd Yusof.
The deputy permanent secretary touched on Brunei's deployment of e-government strategies, where he said the Sultanate focused on strengthening the two pillars of governance and operational structure and IT manpower.
"Our strategy is to be mindful and taking serious consideration of the global and industry demands," Abd Mutalib said.
He remarked that the implementation of e-government was generally "very challenging and requires patience as well as strong commitment".
Director-general of the Public Governance Programme at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Korea Policy Centre, the co-organisers of the conference, Kim Kab-Sub said that the terms "e-government" and "administrative simplification" have become today's bywords for government innovation and efficiency.
"This idea in government is no longer limited to a policy change in a certain period. It is no longer merely a temporary strategy. It is becoming a way of living for survival of today's government," Kim said.
He added that change was an "inevitable choice" for governments. "Throwing off the traditional bureaucratic forms of administration, governments transformed into more flexible organisations able to quickly respond to new changes."
The director-general added that the public's expectations of government have also changed and act as the driving force for the transformation of governments' work processes.
"The various innovation policies adopted by countries themselves are accelerating the expectations and demands of the public. These are today's reality of public service that we, all governments of the world, must face and accept".
The three-day conference at the Radisson Hotel, co-organised by OECD Korea Policy Centre and the Prime Minister's Office, aims to "facilitate the exchange of experiences and best practices" among government officers, scholars and experts involved in e-government initiatives.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ubaidillah Masli
Quelle/Source: Bru Direct, 12.05.2010
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