London-based Commonwealth Business Council director-general Dr Mohan Kaul said the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) and the Malaysia Development Corporation had successfully introduced IT in government departments to enhance work efficiency and improve public delivery system.
The idea to create the Commonwealth Network of Information Technology came mainly from Malaysia and India, he said.
"From Malaysia we learned about cyber city, e-governance, IT use in government agencies like the Customs Department and local governments for planning, monitoring and revenue collection," Dr Kaul told Bernama.
He is in Delhi for the Commonwealth e-Connect conference.
A number of countries had adopted Malaysia's successful models, he said, adding that one of them was South Africa and now the Commonwealth Business Council plans to promote similar ideas in other member states.
"Malaysia played an important role in the early stages. The South Africa Information Technology Agency was more or less set up based on Mampu's concept -- producing IT information solutions for government agencies.
"It is from Malaysia we learned how IT could be used to improve government operations. Malaysia was one of the first countries in the Commonwealth to use IT to run government machinery and develop training programmes, said Dr Kaul who was once an IT advisor to the Malaysian government.
Another major idea that emerged from Malaysia's MDC was providing IT infrastructures to the private sector, a concept adopted by many countries in the 53-member grouping.
"We shared this idea with other governments to provide infrastructures for companies and entrepreneurs to develop solutions for commercial purposes, basically to help them develop softwares and solutions for export," he said.
The MDC's idea was also shared with India, Mauritius, Pakistan and South Africa which benefited from Malaysia's experience.
"Malaysia is an important member in the Commonwealth, particularly in IT and Islamic banking. It can share its experience with other members.
"Now we want to take Malaysia's models to countries like Mozambique where IT access to the government and the layman can be improved," he added.
Autor(en)/Author(s): P. Vijian
Quelle/Source: Bernama, 25.03.2007
