The world is undergoing major changes, but the challenges also bring technological innovations that allow governments to provide for citizens’ needs.
Technological innovations are an efficient tool to refocus governance on the citizens who make up the state, and are more necessary than ever to help governments define their administrations and build an open platform to communicate with their citizens. Providing for citizens basic needs and services is the essence of good governance; a public administration that is considered and strives to be called an open government.
Read more: DO: Technology as Innovation: Putting Citizens at Center of Govt
Vice President Margarita Cedeno called the digital divide as a source of unacceptable inequality, and said this and six other social obstacles are challenges that lead to achieve better opportunities for all Dominicans.
Cedeño said that among these commitments are forming a digital citizenship, building an efficient e-government, moving towards an open 'big data' government, boosting the digital economy as the engine of progress, and taking advantage of technology to generate social change and boost digital entrepreneurship and business innovation.
Read more: DO: Dominican VP underlines challenges to boost digital economy
Leonel Fernandez held a summit with South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun earlier Friday, and signed an agreement on building an "e-government" system in Dominican Republic.
Read more: Dominican Republic president seeks SKorean help with 'e-government'
At a presentation ceremony on Wednesday an initial amount of EC $ 37 thousand was made available to the Reform Management Unit (RMU) for the construction of government’s website.
The funds are being made available under the European Union funded ICT development program and according to project officer Daniel Reid a total of EC $ 900,000 will be made available for ICT development in the government system.
He said that the electronic government is the correct route, because it means that a model is adopted at the vanguard of changes, challenges and transformations that the times and this new century demand.
Read more: Dominican Republic: E-government will take the DR out of obsolescence, Fernandez says