IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov has set a three-month deadline to complete the timetable for the adoption of an e-government programme.

"I give three months for the completion of work on versions of the concept and preparation of a final proposal on the timetable for adopting a state e-government program," Prime Minister Akhmetov has said. The Head of the State IT and Communications Agency, Birzhan Kaneshev, responsible for overseeing the e-government programme, believes that the goals of e-government are to improve the efficiency of government agencies by using information technology, and to establish a civic technology infrastructure that supports the development of an information society.

According to Kaneshev, there are a number of critical steps that the country needs to take before e-governance can flourish:

• create a regulatory, legislative and technological foundation that would allow the government, the public and organisations to function in the conditions of an information society
• optimise the structure of business process in the system of state administration
• open a public centre for access to government information resources and services
• roll-out a system of professional education and training in the field of information technology
• integrate the resources of government agencies into the information system.

Elements of e-government already exist in some of the information systems of government agencies, Kaneshev said. For example, the information system of the Finance Ministry's tax committee allows taxpayers to fill out declarations for all types of taxes online, and review and manage their own personal accounts. The committee's information system is linked to the information systems of the treasury, banks and the justice and interior ministries.

The information system of the government centre for pension payments allows pension payments to be made electronically and reports on pension contributions to be accessed online, he said.

The customs information system automates customs control procedures, centralises databases and processes documents, he said.

Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 09.07.2004