IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Around 500 participants, mostly civil servants and ICT experts from BiH have opened today the Second eGovernment Conference in BiH, entitled Domestic solutions for eGovernment. This two-day conference was opened in the newly-reconstructed Big Parliamentary Hall of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organizers are Agency for Civil Service and UNDP in BiH, together with the leading industry partners in the field, from BiH.

The goal of this conference is to spur development of civil service in terms of the ICT usage as a tool for increasing effectiveness and efficiency of the civil services. Due to that, it is necessary to present the solutions applied in local institutions to the participants of the conference.

“Information and communication technologies (ICT) are irreplaceable tool for development of civil service and its functions. We can see very often that in some countries people go to elections electronically, via internet, citizens pay their taxes from their homes. Also, every citizen in European Union, using the state web site can ask for some documents to be delivered to his home address. Information technologies are, what is obvious very useful tool for increasing the efficiency of the entire society and the state civil service, and that is why the Agency for civil service and UNDP want to initiate the development of this segment of social governance, by organizing such conference”, said Mr. Jakob Finci, director of the Civil Service Agency of BiH at the opening of the conference.

The importance of ICT usage was emphasized by Renzo Daviddi, Head of the Economic and Political Sector of the European Commission delegation in BiH and Zlatko Lagumdžija, MIT Center director, underlining the importance of creation of ICT usage culture while employing the local knowledge and potentials, existing in BiH at the same time as well. UNDP Resident Representative in BiH, Mr. Jens Toyberg-Frandzen said that today’s effective and efficient public institutions cannot operate without the use of modern technologies. “Governments throughout Europe and beyond are actively ensuring that e-Governance is the norm. The process of public administration reform and implementation of eGovernment systems is irreversible. It is a process that cannot be fought; one which every government institution must embrace and harness”, said Mr. Toyberg-Frandzen.

One of the conference goals is to connect local companies offering ICT products and services for informatization of the civil service with the civil servants responsible for these issues on all levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Insufficient usage of ICTs very often is not the consequence of financial problems but of lack of ideas at the side of information technology staff and heads of units at the institutions. In that sense, this conference will help create ideas and increase interest for implementation of advanced ICT solutions in B-H institutions, at all state levels.

The Agency for civil service of BiH and UNDP want to initiate the development and efficiency of the state service, but also to improve the level of services and satisfaction of the entrepreneurs and citizens as consumers of these services as well. The conference invited heads of B-H institutions and their assistants to participate in the conference and see the presentations of the best European practices of ICT usage so the level of government services to citizens and entrepreneurs could be improved. The ICT staff employed in the state institutions will have the opportunity to gather information of the diverse domestic ICT solutions.

Emphasizing the motto "Let’s buy domestic!" the organizers want to present the best home-made electronic solutions. Just one day before the conference started, more than 460 people from BiH applied via internet to participate the conference. This shows that the interest for this kind of event in BiH is big, what additionally implies the need to enhance the electronic government in BiH even more.

Quelle: OneWorld SouthEast Europe, 10.11.2005