In an address to parliamentarians yesterday morning, Laing noted that the service will allow citizens and businesses to pay business licence fees, real property taxes and fines, as well as apply for driver's licence renewals and new business licences and make vendor inquiries online.
Laing said this undertaking is a fundamental one for The Bahamas, as it will change the culture of doing business and providing public services.
"It will involve a substantial investment on our part but the gains will be significant. For this reason, we seek to have the fullest possible buy-in by our society," Laing said, adding that the government will be conducting a massive public education campaign, beginning with parliamentarians.
Similar meetings will be held for civil servants, businesspersons, educators, religious leaders and the public at large throughout the nation, he said, as the government wishes to ensure that citizens have a full understanding of the services being offered.
The e-Government laws were passed in 2003, and several initiatives were launched over the years, Laing pointed out.
"The Government Wide Area Network was implemented in the mid-1990s to link all of the ministries and departments to the main data centre in the Information Technology Unit of the Ministry of Finance," he said.
"Currently, a large number of ministries and departments have websites, there are more than 200 government forms available online, and a few services, including the Police character Certificate Application, the Skills Bank, Company Registration, and Passport Application. Unfor-tunately, payments for these services cannot be made online."
To advance its efforts and improve the online service delivery strategy, the government has engaged the assistance of Singapore, through its technology arm, IDA International, to recommend a way forward that will employ the best practices, and follow a model that would yield the most for the country's endeavour, Laing ex-plained.
Singapore is one of the world's leaders in delivering e-Government and over some 30 years, it has successfully used technology to improve the lives of its citizens, expand its economy, and made itself one of the best countries in the world in which to work and live, he continued.
"The Bahamas is seeking to do the same. In the long-term we would like to use technology to make The Bahamas the best place to work and live in the Caribbean," he said.
"We envision a Bahamas where technology is the driver in all sectors in our society: tourism, education, financial services, government, health care, transportation, and commerce."
Among the possibilities that exist, Laing said, will be the ability of parents to keep track of their children's performance online.
Such a system can also improve health services, allowing greater access to information, easier access to medical records, and a more responsive public health system.
Laing said it was also possible to envision a time when Bahamians can shop locally online, and local companies can expand their markets and reach global customers.
"A transformed financial services sector where business with government is done online, and monitoring and reporting is done online. An improved justice system where lawyers can file documents online, court documents are digitized and readily available to authorized persons, the backlog is no more and cases are adjudicated in record time," he said.
In the medium term, the government sees this initiative as the enabler of true public sector reform, he said, as it will provide a baseline for measuring government agencies' performance; introduce online customer service and encourage response; provide easy access to government service; clarify government processes; im-prove efficiency and transform the way the government collects revenue.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): K. Nancoo-Russell
Quelle/Source: The Freeport News, 09.11.2010
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