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Brunei Has New e-Govt Centre
By Narissa Noor

Bandar Seri Begawan - A new government department called e-Government National Centre has been formed, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement yesterday.

By command of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Prime Minister's Office stated that His Majesty has consented to the formation of the new department - "E-Government National Centre".

The formation is part of the continuous effort of the Government of His Majesty to upgrade the effectiveness in providing efficient and effective civil service in a dynamic environment through the use and enhancement of info-communication technology.

The main task of the national centre is to provide services in terms of operation, acquisition and human resource development in the field of ICT related to e-government initiatives, especially in civil service.

Formalised through the formation of the

Brunei Darussalam Information Technology Council (BIT Council), the e-government initiative was formally established in 2000, with the goal of modernising and improving civil service, and to build a more transparent and accountable government.

With an allocation of nearly B$1 billion under the 8th National Development Plan, the aim is to move Brunei towards paperless governance and services through the use of multimedia technologies for information and data exchange, with the public sector drive towards e-government and a private sector drive towards e-business programmes.

Since then a brace of projects have been signed and formalised towards achieving e-govemment initiatives.

Another example of e-government is currently being initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs through its ICT Infrastructure and Data Centre project that will link the ministry and the departments under it.

The e-district programme (Institution of Mukim and Village Management System - IMK) provides online voting of village heads and penghulus, as well as facilitate communication between village heads/penghulus with village/mukim residents.

It will help villagers to lodge complaints online directly to village heads, penghulus or district officers. There will also be a database of villagers to facilitate the district offices to manage the welfare of the villagers, mukims and longhouses.

In a study conducted by Brown University in the United States, Brunei was ranked 104 out of 198 in the 2006 global e-government study, putting the Sultanate well on its way in the implementation of a successful e-government.

The establishment of the E-government National Centre also reaffirms the titah by His Majesty in which the monarch pushed for the establishment of an e-Brunei by guiding the country into the mainstream of global Information Technology.

The centre, which will begin operations today (April 1), is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Office and will be led by a director. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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