What is holding up Philippines' e-government?

If you lament the slow-moving traffic in the Philippines, you shouldn’t feel impatient with other things that may move even slower in this country when it has something to do with public administration and governance.

Next to the snail’s pace in the delivery of justice in this country, we nominate the formation of an overseer for information and communications technology (ICT) as the next worst.

Now over a decade in the making, the establishment of a government body that would be in charge of developing, planning, and promoting the government’s ICT agenda is still in limbo despite being tagged as a priority measure. How difficult can this task be?

On closer scrutiny, this is a case where the horses are running full speed ahead, except someone forgot to hitch them to the chariot. We have individual ICT programs for most government agencies that thinks it needs one.

Data dangers: Can data be too open?

It's a sunny day and canoeists across England head for the nearest river. Before setting out, they check an app that tells them how fast that river is flowing. Too swiftly or too slowly? Then perhaps they'll head to the beach, checking an app for bathing water quality. Afterwards they might relax with a glass of English wine, much improved since growers have been able to identify the most propitious soils in which to plant their vines.

This is the kind of scenario that environment secretary Liz Truss hopes will unfold as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) rolls out its Open Data initiative. It is, she claims, the biggest single government "data give-away". By making 8,000 data sets available to the public, the government says it will make it easier for people to experience the countryside and improve the environment, and save money for businesses.

Eksklusif: Dialog Basuki Tjahaja Purnama bersama Aiman Witjaksono

Konspirasi Dana Siluman APBD Mencakup Banyak "Pemain"

Rapat Fasilitasi Mediasi Evaluasi RAPERDA DKI Jakarta Tahun Anggaran 2015

Gubernur DKI Jakarta Beberkan Permainan Anggaran APBD

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 serves as a reminder that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world.

The Index scores 177 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). No country has a perfect score, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. This indicates a serious, worldwide corruption problem.

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares.

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares. - See more at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#sthash.f3vikl6U.dpuf

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares. - See more at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#sthash.f3vikl6U.dpuf

e-Government Di Jerman - Bagian 1

Walaupun   teknologi mengalami  banyak kemajuan, mengantri untuk mengisi bentuk-bentuk dan  menyelesaikan   rencana-rencana  kartu-kartu identitas penduduk dan isu-isu administrasi, hal ini sama sekali bukanlah  sebuah hal  pada masa lalu, Banyak warga Eropa masih menghabiskan waktu berjam-jam untuk mengurus hal-hal semacam ini. Itu sebabnya mengapa konsep e-Government, begitu pentingnya, karena  konsep ini menjanjikan untuk menciptakan efisiensi-efisiensi dan secara signifikan mempersingkat waktu yang dipergunakan oleh masyarakat.

China Launches Automatic Fingerprint ID System

A database of up to 50 million fingerprints can now be housed in a new Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) recently deployed by Public Safety Authority in China’s Anhui Province to help reduce its criminal investigations. In partnership with NEC Corporations, the AFIS, the largest of its kind in China can help increase the hit rate on latent fingerprint inquiries by tenfold.

Estonia's e-government solution

For several years now the world has lived in the shadow of the recession. Indeed, for some member states of the EU, the financial crisis still looms large, and it is consequently affecting the Eurozone as a whole. However, although the recession hit hard, it also highlighted Europe's ability to react to serious problems in a truly effective way. Faced with often divergent interests and prospects, the governments of the EU have managed to reach agreements on a range of measures that are designed to improve the sustainability of state financing, boost competition and prevent such a crisis taking hold again in the future.

EU member states have managed to agree on mechanisms that ensure the financial stability of the Eurozone and the EU, and the functioning of the single market. Having only acceded to the Eurozone this year, the government of Estonia is frequently asked whether we regret our decision to adopt the euro at a time when we are having to support countries for whose problems we are entirely blameless. The answer I give has always been, and will always be, the same: the euro is of enormous benefit to Estonia in any event, which is why we view our transition to the single currency as such an achievement. At the same time, being part of the Eurozone means that we have to meet all of the obligations that this entails.

It is a question of solidarity, which is one of the cornerstones of the EU. We do not know when we may need the help and support of others; providing it is a moral duty. Moreover, it means that a crisis situation in one member state of the Eurozone is far from being just that country's problem: in a common market, one nation's concerns are shared by everybody.

Of course, we should not forget that every country is still primarily responsible for its own economy and finances, which is why the loans from the support funds are issued on such strict conditions. Measures designed to promote growth will only work once a country has put its finances in order: public services cannot be provided using borrowed money, and doing so is neither sustainable nor morally justifiable. Consequently, this financial support, coupled with decisive action on the part of governments, will ensure the desired results and emergence from the crisis. With hindsight we can see that riding out the recession has been less turbulent for those countries whose governments have managed to avoid excessive growth in public debt and maintain a minimal budget deficit.

According to Eurobarometer, electors also have faith in their governments in countries where the budget deficit and the level of public debt are low – with the greatest support being enjoyed in countries such as Luxembourg, Sweden and Estonia.

In Estonia we did not only keep our revenues and expenditures in balance, but were guided by the principle that its pays to boost your financial reserves when the general economic situation allows you to do so. Although there were recommendations to increase the level of public debt, the Estonian government decided against this and also did not use its reserves for a kind of 'economic doping'. If we had done so, we would not only have to repay loans, but would also be accruing substantial amounts of interest – happily we are now able to invest that money in new economic growth. On average, the EU spends 3% of its GDP every year paying interest on loans; in Estonia, however, we only pay 0.2%, whilst also earning more from the placement of our reserves than we pay in interest overall. Furthermore, Estonia has the lowest public sector debt in the EU, which stands at 6.6% of GDP.

Hopefully we will soon be speaking of the financial crisis in the past tense, enabling us to focus our efforts on the other challenges facing the EU. It seems strange, for instance, that we have yet to fully develop the internal market that forms the basis of our economic growth and wellbeing. For Estonia, the development of the internal market means, first and foremost, its adaptation to the demands of the digital age. Business operators and ordinary citizens alike must be able to carry out processes via electronic channels with other countries as easily as they are able to do so in their own nation. If this does not happen, there is no point to the term 'internal market' in the context of the EU.

Estonia, however, has good reason to be satisfied with the e-services it provides: the e-government solutions that have been developed in our country set the example in terms of their simplicity and transparency. This has had a positive influence on more than just the private sector; Estonian citizens have come to take the likes of the e-Tax and Customs Board and e-elections for granted, not to mention the other services that reduce bureaucracy and make their lives much simpler.

The 'Arab spring', meanwhile, has brought another serious problem to the attention of the EU this year: illegal immigrants and refugees. To some extent this has tested the very principles on which the EU is based: the debates that ignited earlier in the year about reinforcing the Schengen zone included proposals regarding the temporary closure of borders. The reinforcement of the Schengen zone is not about restoring national borders, but restoring trust. Doing so depends on us acting together – it is important that all member states fulfil their obligations on an equal footing and help those having difficulty meeting theirs.

Reinstating national borders is something we can and should only consider under exceptional circumstances. It must be the last resort in a situation where requirements are not being met and there are no signs of improvement. Even then a collective decision would be needed. Understanding and compassion must be shown to refugees, who are seeking security and a sense of certainty; – positive assurances that the EU offers to its own citizens. Over the decades the EU has grown into an area of great stability that no crisis has yet managed to destroy.

The bigger this area of stability is, the better for the EU as a whole. It is for this reason that Estonia is one of the countries that supports, in principle, the continued expansion of the EU, since this will underpin peace and stability in Europe. As such, we must keep our door open to those who share our values and who are willing to work hard to meet the conditions of accession.

.publicservice.co.uk

Shanghai extends immigration auto-clearance

Shanghai, China’ biggest city and one of the most vibrant, plans to extend its electronic immigration channels to residents of Taiwan by end of this year. There are more than 500,000 Taiwan residents who live and work in Shanghai and nearby cities. Every year, more than one million journeys are made by Taiwanese residences through Shanghai’s immigration checkpoints. The auto-clearance system is currently only available to Hong Kong and Macau residents who possess Chinese nationality.

The Pudong Exit-Entry Frontier Inspection Station (PEEFIS) started installing the electronic gates in December 2008 in order to launch auto clearance services for Hong Kong and Macau residents during Shanghai Expo. The 10 electronic channels allowed Hong Kong and Macau residents who hold “Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macau Residents” to pass immigration within six seconds.

Hong Kong and Macau continued to have separate immigration systems after British and Portuguese governments handed the sovereignty of the two territories to China in 1997 and 1999 respectively. Residents of Hong Kong and Macau who have Chinese nationality are issued with the travel permit, allowing them to enter Mainland China easily.

The auto-clearance system was tested to be ready in July 2009, and officially launched on 1 Jan 2012, when Shanghai Expo opened its doors. In addition, PEEFIS is also undertaking a major overhaul of its hardware infrastructure, in particular IT hardware and the surveillance system. The upgrade is expected to complete by the end of February.

futuregov.asia

Public sector employees block customers’ transactions!

.crikey.com.au

Government employees fail to provide proper service to the public, reported Al-Riyadh newspaper on Sunday, quoting unsatisfied customers.

They claim they have nowhere to turn to with their complaints. The customers’ grievances vary widely. They said employees arrive late for work, disregarding the inconvenience they cause. They are forced to search for employees, going from one office to another, while an employee had gone out for a break. Others were on the phone to discuss matters that were obviously not work-related. Employees would excuse themselves from work early, when they had nothing to do. The list of accusations seems endless.Costumers were also annoyed to not receive a response about their complaints. When one customer tried to contact a manager to discuss issues, it appeared he had taken leave from work for trivial reasons.
Complicated

Ali Al-Hamoud, a private sector employee, said he avoids going to government departments unless there is a very urgent matter to resolve, because of the inertia. He said the staff would complicate matters by shifting documents from one employee to another without any justified reasons. He said: “The responsible employee is usually absent, because he had to collect his children from school. This would certainly take time, due to traffic jams and then the work day would end without the return of the employee.” Al-Hamoud also said that his manager would reprimand him if he had left his work to finish a private transaction, let alone collect his children from school. Public sector employees are required to work a number of hours to serve the company’s customers. “My manager used to send me to review documents at a government department, but he would get irritated when I couldn’t get my job done. Even though he knew I failed because of the slow routine of the government employees.

Closing time

Some government departments have very busy days, causing a lot of pressure on staff that are trying to meet all requests as much as possible. There are also those who do not have any sense of responsibility and who perform carelessly. This reflects negatively on a customer who can barely get excused from his work in the morning, and is still not serviced by the time the department closes down for business. Some government departments close at noon, some stay open until later, causing confusion among private sector employees. They are unsure when they should come, in order to prevent a delay that might lead to penalties.

Dedication

Sadiq Jabir noted that some staff members are dedicated to their work, despite the intense pressure. However, others do not have such high standards. “Once I spent a long time waiting in front of a door with a large crowd. We were shocked to find that the staff had not yet bothered to come in.” Such actions make customers lose their patience. Some exploded in anger when they saw staff members leaving to collect their children from school. Customers then entered into fights and bitter debates with the staff. It would have been easy to avoid all this tension through a sense of responsibility and ownership.

E-government

A study, prepared by the Court of Monitoring, revealed that 70% of employees in the government sector are lethargic at work. 94% of them are absent from work continuously. Customers are demanding to quickly implement electronic technology in many government agencies, especially after the successful experiences at Civil Affairs. They are now able to control the movement of clients, facilitate the waiting and terminate proceedings clearly and swiftly.

Motivation

Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Askar, executive director of customer satisfaction in government departments in the Eastern Region, said: “The laziness of the staff has a negative impact on customer satisfaction. Unfortunately there are careless staff members in many departments and government agencies, disturbing the customers.” The director said that leaving to complete private transactions or to collect children from school are unacceptable reasons to leave work. “Our employees can use a driver, or get other forms of help. We should better control and follow-up our employees, distribute the workload fairly and adopt programs to motivate employees to perform their duties the best way possible.”

http://arabnews.com

Dubai launches online direct debit for govt payments

Dubai eGovernment Department has launched a virtual account for making government payments online, in collaboration with Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD). The service, called “Cash Online”, will be available to both CBD account holders and non-CBD account holders. Corporate and individual users are able to open a free virtual account following the submission of required official documents. The account is linked to Dubai eGovernment’s ePay portal such that payments for government services could be directly made from customer’s account with five of the major banks in United Arab Emirates. No minimum balance is required for the virtual account. 

Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai eGovernment, says that the government seeks “to ease the life of customers with Dubai government entities as much as possible”, and “to provide innovative electronic channels of easy access anywhere and at any time.” 

Last year, the government ePay portal collected a total amount of AED3.3 billion (US$898 million) through credit card payments, and usage of direct debit services rose by 10 fold, from 54,538 transactions in 2010 to 522,815 transactions in 2011.

.futuregov.asia

New application to enhance e-government accessibility

A new mobile application will be released by the government soon that will cover, at first, the basic interactions with the government, and will eventually include all ‘e-government’ services including those currently provided through Hukoomi and the Ministry of Interior’s Metrash, according to an ictQatar official. ictQatar services delivery manager Mohannad Omar Naim said that new self-service terminals are also to be installed to support these initiatives, providing greater access to government services.

He believes that people need mobility, need to trust their government and need to be included in decisions through social network interaction. People also need to have access to all their government services through a single log-on access point with only one username.

For this vision to become reality, the government should provide accessibility, broadband, and other critical infrastructure. The idea of eGovernment in Qatar started in 2001 with 11 online services, mainly based around residence permits for individuals and businesses. Naim said that people resisted at first, with the government having to beg companies to use their online services.

Now, online systems have become so prevalent that companies and residents are now recommending services to be added. eGovernment is now in a “transformation phase” working towards a new “digital society” with “eparticipation”. Dr Alistair Erskine, chief of Medical Informatics at the Sidra Medical and Research Centre, said that “Qatar does not have a very well developed primary care network. There are significant efforts to do so, but those efforts will take time and they will take a change in the way the population thinks about primary care.”

Erskine said that just as people can now leapfrog credit card payments and go directly to mobile payments, soon patients will be able to skip elements of primary care and bring care directly into the home. Monitoring tools, disease surveillance, weight and other monitoring devices, as well as information portals for patients to learn about and understand their condition are some of the elements that can transform healthcare in Qatar.

Fibre network upgrades to the country’s broadband systems will play an important role in implementing these kinds of healthcare services. According to Erskine, Qatar’s vision for health care calls for a dramatic transformation in the coming years, not just in terms of personalised health care but also in overall health systems management. Flu outbreaks, for example, will be identified before health care providers even report cases, simply by the symptoms being looked up on Google by Internet users. Patients will have better monitoring and interaction from health care providers directly from the home, supported by the “decentralisation and democratisation of health information”. “People will be able to get a chip with their entire genome in less than 24 hours, for less than QR3,600,” Erskine explained.

He said that this breakthrough will allow healthcare professionals to identify patterns in recessive genes amongst the population that were previously unrecognised. Gamification, or making these services more entertaining and engaging, will also improve their success as people will be more likely to use them consistently. Mobile apps are also crucial in helping those with disabilities which is crucial because, as David Banes, CEO of Qatar Assistive Technology Centre (Mada) points out, 70% of people will acquire some disability in their working life. A number of inexpensive apps are transforming the lives of the visually and hearing impaired, whether it is through GPS navigation tools, access to books using kindle or other reading assistants, communication tools for the deaf or product recognition software for the blind.

Banes said that one way the public can help is by donating their second hand iphones and smartphones to Mada, who will provide them as living-assistance tools for those who need them.

gulf-times.com

‘The missing piece in a smart government’

Chinese evening newspaper Lianhe Wanbao broke the story on CPIB's probe of two top-ranking government officials. …

It was a memorable and bold moment in Singapore journalism. Earlier this week, a dogged reporter's patience and persistence combined with a brave editor's decision to throw caution to the wind ended in an exclusive that brought back memories of the good old days of old-fashioned reporting — and put the government in an embarrassing spot.

The Chinese evening newspaper, Lianhe Wanbao, went ahead with a report on the corruption investigations into the activities of two top public service officers — Singapore Civil Defence Force chief Peter Lim Sin Pang and Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay — without a government confirmation.

It named names and gave details, like the involvement of a woman in the scandal, knowing fully well that there was a chance — a very small chance, maybe — that it could get some important details wrong. When the government statement came — on the same day but after the paper had published the report — the news had already caught fire with the on-line world hammering out posts and reports and raising pointed issues that ranged from transparency to arrogance.

The most damaging statement, unintended though it was, came from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. In response to media queries, it said that the narcotics man was arrested on Dec 19 and the civil defence boss on Jan 4, many days before the government put out its statement on Jan 24.

It was too long a lapse and was made worse by the rapid-fire news cycle punishing even those who take a couple of hours to come out with its side of the story. Why this long delay? In response to a query by The Straits Times, the government said the investigations are continuing and "it is only fair that we accord the officers assisting with investigations a fair hearing in accordance with the civil service disciplinary process and the law."

It is understandable that you want to give those involved, especially when the investigations are still on-going, a good shot at fair play. That occasion passed when the two were arrested. That was the moment when officialdom should have bitten the bullet and said: The tipping point has been reached. And we have to go public with the story.

But it remained silent until the unlikeliest of sources — the traditional media, fed by a regular diet of press releases and official speeches — put the story in the public domain. The end result: A government caught with its back against the wall and in a reactive mode.

High pay and low corruption

When the Parliamentary debate on political salaries took place from Jan 16 to 18, the one critical point that never came up was that of a clean Cabinet and civil service. The silence on this issue was understandable because corruption in high places in government is extremely rare.

But this new development, where two very senior public service officials were under investigation for "serious personal misconduct", could have been brought up and could have added a new dimension to the debate. The salary-corruption link is important.

High pay was one way to discourage officials from wanting to have their palms greased. Lee Kuan Yew highlighted that point when he pushed vigorously for top salaries. No reasonable-minded Singaporean would have expected a corrupt-free public service, even with high pay; those who want to get round the laws will always find loopholes to exploit. But you can make sure that corruption cases are as rare as possible. And that corrupt officials, once exposed, will face the full brunt of the law. Even ministers have not been spared.

Former National Development Minister Teh Cheang Wan, who was praised by Lee Kuan Yew a number of times, chose to end his life when he faced the heat of an unyielding group of anti-corruption officers way back in the 1980s.

Making the CPIB report directly to the PMO gives them the latitude and freedom to investigate even the high and mighty without too many encumbrances. All these could have made the Parliamentary debate more meaningful and relevant.

But an opportunity to explain the historical backdrop and context to Singapore's war on corruption was lost. The ruling party kept silent; so did the Opposition. I am more inclined to sympathise with the members of the Opposition because there was no way for them to have information on the latest investigations.

Lessons not learnt

Since GE 2011, the government seems to be on its backfoot with communication blunders becoming a regular occurrence. From the Mas Selamat case (official statement was issued four hours after the terrorist escaped from the Internal Security Department's detention centre) to the wrong signatures on YOG appreciation certificates (Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that it was an embarrassment but not a disaster) to the PAP's electoral defeat in Aljunied (Lee Kuan Yew warned residents that they will repent if Opposition won), it is clear that the government has yet to get a handle on how to communicate effectively in a new world. That is really strange.

This is not a stupid government, it has done a lot of good things for its people, it is respected overseas and its model of governance is highly sought after. Yet, one of the basic attributes of a smart government -- squaring with its citizens and carrying them along -- seems to be missing.

P N Balji has more than 35 years experience as a journalist. He is now a media consultant.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com

E-gate provides service for voters

The official “e-gate” website with cooperation of Ministry of Interior have provided a service for voters to inquire about their information through registration number. The service is put by Ministry of Interior, to offer the voter’s information, regarding the name and place of constituency headquarters, said head of the e-government in Central Agency for Information Technology (CAIT), Dr Ittihad Al-Bahar.

The service simplifies the voter’s usage of gathering information through entering their ID number or ministry of interior reference number, she added. Al-Bahar pointed out that the service aims to prepare the parliamentary elections that being held on the second of February to support the efforts of government and neutrality to the elections.

The CAIT is responsible of granting citizens services to strengthen the electoral and democratic process in Kuwait, she noted. Al-Bahar called for all voters to view the information services through the e-gate or ministry of interior website.

.kuwaittimes.net

Public sector ICT in ASEAN: a tale of five cities

The FutureGov team has spent much of the last few months on the road. My colleagues have been busy travelling to Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and mainland China - and I’ve had the good fortune to catch up with over 120 government officials in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, The Philippines and most recently Thailand.

Part of this time was invested in recruiting journalists and researchers, to beef up FutureGov’s Country Intelligence Reports. This is an emerging area of focus for FutureGov as we look to distil the hundreds of conversations we have with senior officials in Asia Pacific in to monthly market assessments.

We now have specialists covering Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China - and are about to put the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in place with the recruitment of an analyst covering Malaysia.

This has helped us really increase our bandwidth to cooperate with governments in the region - an example of which is the work we’re now doing with the Department of Communications and Informatics, the State Ministry of Research & Technology, and the National ICT Council in Indonesia, as part of our fourth annual FutureGov event in Indonesia, as well as on their data centre consolidation plans in a number of agencies.

The work of Ministry of Finance, as well as the Immigration Department is particularly noteworthy - and underlines that the country’s highly decentralised bureaucracy is still capable of delivering major transformation programmes.

Despite progress on the recruitment front, the primary reason for my travels was simply to sit down and directly discuss the plans of senior officials. I’m lucky enough, after eight years with FutureGov, to have ended up with a role that satisfies my twin passions: coffee & curiosity. And as always, if you ask enough questions, patterns emerge.

I’ll be sharing more detailed assessments of individual agencies in the coming months in FutureGov’s country-by-country reports, but here’s a few observations from six weeks living out of a suitcase:

Politics is local, but… One of the reasons I’ve stayed in the region for the last 14 years is that I fell in love with the cultural diversity of Asia in general, and ASEAN in particular. So it follows that searching for commonalities between differing bureaucratic cultures would be a fool’s errand. And yet if you scratch the surface - the key countries of ASEAN are looking to create greater value from their interactions, through a mixture of information leverage and automation, with the emphasis on the former. The language of implementation reflects domestic political priorities - but what’s being done is essentially the same. Thailand may be focused on applying technology to education, flood prevention, and disaster management - whereas Indonesia is pushing ahead with consolidating government data centres and providing a common accounting platform for government. But look closer - Indonesia’s data centre consolidation is partially driven by a requirement to have disaster recovery centres established for all key agencies. Meanwhile Indonesia’s US$250 million move to a common accounting platform is intended to improve the productivity of central government spending in rural areas - which is the same driver as Thailand’s ambitious plans to overhaul education.

Central government is centralised, but… From the outside government looks so big, but it never feels that way when you’re inside the corridors of power looking out. It is hard to underestimate the tension between departments when they are called to collaborate - which explains why collaboration remains so infrequent. I asked a Director-General of one Finance department whether he’d compared notes with his counterparts from other agencies in government, as I knew that they were approaching the same issue from a different angle. His response was that he didn’t care what other departments were doing, didn’t care what the central IT agency had recommended, and was happy to build his own team to oversee the project with minimal inputs from elsewhere. The same approach can be seen, sadly, with the growing turf war between India’s Planning Commission and the Ministry of Home Affairs over the status of the Unique ID Authority’s Aadhar card.

CIOs have been appointed, but… There’s a big difference between someone who is nominally, as opposed to functionally, the CIO of the organisation. This has a huge impact on an agency’s ability to digest and contextualise its technology options. Those countries with a pan-government CIO have a more mature approach to ICT deployment. For now nominal CIOs with other ‘primary’ job responsibilities remain in the majority. It can be a challenge to keep these nominal CIOs engaged with longterm, technically demanding projects.

These observations will have to do for now, but if you’re looking for a bit more meat, then look out for the first of the Country Intelligence Reports I mentioned earlier - the countries we’ll be covering each month are: Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and The Philippines. Watch this space (as well as the weekly newsletter) for further details.

futuregov.asia

90 Percent of Passports to be e-Passports by 2016

Within five years 90 percent of passport holders will be using e-passports that integrate a smart card IC chip. This is one of the conclusions drawn from IMS Research's recent report “Electronic Government and Health Care ID Cards – World – 2011.” A rapid migration from paper or machine readable passports to smart card-based passports (complying with the ICAO standard for ePassports) started in 2007. This has led to nearly half of all passports now in use being e-passports.

“This trend is set to continue” stated the report author Alex Green. “There are still a few countries around the world that are not yet issuing e-passports. However, most have started and with the typical five to ten year replacement rates for passports, it is only a matter of time before all passports in circulation are e-passports.”

The report goes on to explore to what extent biometrics are being recorded on these e-passports. Interestingly, even for passports issued in 2010, in the majority of cases no biometric data is held on these secure ICs except for a digital image of the holders face. IMS Research forecast that this will change. “

By 2014, the situation is forecast to have been reversed” states Green. “By this time the majority of passports being issued will also include additional biometric data such a one or more finger print, iris scans, etc.”

The e-passport market is examined for 40 countries in IMS Research’s report “Electronic Government and Healthcare ID Cards – World – 2011.” Similar analysis is also provided for the national ID cards, healthcare cards, electronic driver’s licenses and a number of other government related card types.

thecuttingedgenews.com

How e-government can shape competitiveness

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves talks to T Magazine about two key elements of his country’s competitiveness: the use of IT to create effective e-government infrastructure and the institution of a flat income tax. Interview by Dr. Paul Kielstra

T Magazine: In your experience, how does e-government affect the way that government functions?

President Ilves: The most fundamental benefit is transparency. We have been living with that for 15 years, but you forget how rare it is. I was at an UN General Assembly meeting, listening to various heads of state saying that they had put expenditure [data] online. But that is only the very beginning of e-government.

How does it affect the work of government officials?

It has basically freed up a lot of civil servants. You don’t have people doing rote things that can be done by machines, which is important because our fundamental problem is our size. In my work, I’m not a passive recipient of e-government. Outside of Northern Europe and the United States, people don’t necessarily understand at the level of head of state that e-government is about the way people operate, not the technology. People who do understand this are those currently in their 30s.

I’ve been using an Apple Computer since 1983. The government was paperless by 1999. It’s not a big deal. I have a Facebook page, but that is trite. Anyone can do that. E-government has nothing to do with people in government having computers. It means you do things completely differently. For example, our health records are all on line. You are defrocking the priesthood of the medical profession.

The patient owns his own data in the marketplace. It’s not just government, though, it’s more a matter of the attitude of society. For example, I’m shocked when I have to pay to use Wi-Fi. In Estonia, it’s just there. My daughter sees what her homework is on e-school. It is all very normal when you are living there. For it to work, you must have a completely reliable ID system so that you can sign legal documents.

The other thing you need is a decentralized data system, not just one big computer. You have access to everything as the citizen; police can access your police records; doctors can access your health records; but the tax authorities, say, cannot access your health records. You are the owner of the data. Another reason it works is that, basically people think it’s cool.

After nearly two decades of experience with the flat tax, what do you see as the benefits and drawbacks of such a system in practice?

The flat tax has been adopted by many countries. Some places it has worked, some it hasn’t. The real benefit is in compliance, which comes from having a very simple computer-based tax return. This is where we differ from all kinds of countries.

Where there are complicated tax schemes, people don’t pay taxes. There are not any major down sides. If you have a complex tax system and 37 million loopholes, so that you can make billions and still pay low taxes but the average guy pays whatever percent, then maybe the flat tax is more equitable than a progressive tax. An empirical study should be done. The problem is that many people like the idea of progressive taxes and soaking the rich, but it doesn’t really happen.

Estonia has a reputation for being one of the least corrupt countries in Eastern and Central Europe. How has your country been able to get a handle on this issue?
This is intimately related to e-government. It is the result of transparency. If you have e-tenders, for example, it is much harder to be corrupt. The only place where we have a corruption problem is at the level of local governance, where the national parliament can’t legislate transparency. How much transparency you have there is a local decision. Preconceptions also need to change. The image has existed for 70 years about Eastern Europe, that its countries are poor, backward and corrupt. It’s time to get over it. Look at Estonia and look at some other European countries [and compare] the corruption levels, debt, and deficit spending.

Estonia adopted the Euro at the start of this year. Was this a case of bad timing or do the long-term benefits still outweigh the risks?

We’ll see what happens with the Euro zone, but for the short-term the benefit for us has been that it meant the re-establishment of investor confidence in Estonia. It is kind of like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. [In particular,] it has eliminated the threat of devaluation, which was the biggest threat of all, a forced devaluation which would have wiped out people’s [savings].

What lessons does your country’s recent experience of adopting austerity measures hold for other states?
Do what you think is doable. One of the things we did have, which others might not, was the equivalent of 10% of GDP in our reserves. This is a big buffer and we didn’t have to go to the IMF. I don’t know how to tell people to save, other than to say “save”. Also, the experience of life under the Soviet Union does make it easier. It is still in historical memory. Anyone over 25 in Estonia remembers the Soviet Union and how awful it was. Compared to that, [austerity] isn’t so bad.

Estonia recently dropped to 24th position from the 18th in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report. Was this fair?

They forgot to convert the currency. We have an open economy and are very dependent on exports. When reputable sources give stupid news, we suffer. You are about the 17th person who has asked me about that. The World Bank was completely irresponsible. Can you imagine if you did this in a company or a government?

This article was first published in Issue 06 of Ernst & Young´s T Magazine publication which will be available January 25 2012 on this website.

http://tmagazine.ey.com

Jordan govt to set up firm to finish national broadband grid

Jordan's government said that it will establish a company to complete the National Broadband Network project, The Jordan Times reported online. The new firm will be owned by the government, by telecoms operators and by ISPs. Minister of Information and Communications Technology Bassem Roussan said that the ministry will complete the required legal measures and refer them to the Cabinet for final approval next week in order to go ahead with the creation of the firm

Roussan said work on the project halted in 2008 when Jordan was hit hard by the global financial crisis. He said the completion of the project is a must as many e-government services, e-curricula for schools and telemedicine providers rely on the network.

Roussan said that the scheme will be finished in a maximum of three years. Residents of rural areas will then have access to the internet at schools connected to the network. According to the ICT ministry, about 35 percent of the project has been completed to date at a total cost of USD 36 million.

Roussan said that another company will be set up to promote e-government services and look into other e-services needed by citizens. This firm will be 51 percent-owned by the government with private sector companies owning the rest.

telecompaper.com