Officially opening a three-day workshop on e-governance that is currently underway in Windhoek, Gurirab said the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) revolution had brought about new concepts of the knowledge economy or the information society, adding that e-governance was a growing integral part of this concept. E-Governance is the use of ICTs in public administrations, combined with organisational change and new skills, in order to improve public and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies.
On what the Government was doing about this Gurirab said: "The Government has placed a high priority on e-governance for the electronic delivery of social services to our citizens, businesses and internally within the government itself, through cabinet's interventions and directives."
He added that the workshop formed a part of the process that required active participation of all stakeholders, especially within government , if the implementation of an e-government in Namibia was to be effective in delivering electronic services to both the public and private sectors.
ICTs said Gurirab, should be regarded as tools adding that the main challenge in building an information society was to harness the potential of ICTs to promote the millennium development goals and targets for 2015, which include the eradication of poverty, combating HIV-AIDS, promotion of gender equality, improvement of maternal health and achievement of universal primary education.
"In building the Information Society, we should pay particular attention to the special needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups amidst us including unemployed and underprivileged people, as well as special needs of orphans, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
"To this end we should work tirelessly to empower the poor, particularly, those living in remote, marginalised rural and urban areas, to access information and to use ICTs as a tool to support their efforts to lift themselves out of poverty and misery."
Local, regional and international experts are gathered for the e-governance awareness workshop, whose topics under discussion will include what can be achieved with e-governance, role of the Namibian Government in an information society and e-government vision and implementation.
Autor: Tonderai Katswara
Quelle: The Namibian, 28.09.2004
