People will soon be able to access more official services from post offices in line with the government's one-stop service policy.
Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan, permanent secretary of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry, said yesterday that on January 9, Thailand Post Co's head office in the Bang Rak area would begin providing 10 services from different state agencies as part of a pilot project. Apart from paying bills for utilities and insurance policies, people will also be able to pay their personal taxes or request a personal-data document. They will also have instant access to information on tourism, job openings and even the latest weather forecasts.
In February, Thailand Post will expand the services to four other branches - and gradually cover all of its 1,100 offices nationwide, she said.
The ICT Ministry will also offer similar services via automatic kiosks belonging to Thailand Post and TOT Corp Plc in remote areas and airports.
Dhipavadee said the new services were made possible after all relevant state agencies linked information together via one online network.
"Soon people will be able to access all the state services at one home page, ecitizen.go.th," she added.
Today there are around six million active Internet subscribers in Thailand.
Meanwhile, the ICT Ministry, together with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, in October secretly surveyed the readiness of all 283 state units to promote the services on their home pages.
But the result shows that most of the pages can only offer the organisations' information. Only a minority can interact with visitors.
"None offers the services of different organisations on their sites or has a capacity to intelligently interact with the users, which are the highest goals," Dhipavadee said.
The survey should trigger the agencies' urge to compete with one another to improve their IT-based services, she added.
The ministry plans to check their progress again next month.
Quelle: The Nation, 20.12.2003
