Brunei Ranks 104 In World E-Govt Study
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei ranked 104 out of 198 in the 2006 global e-government study conducted by US Brown University.

"Brunei's ranking is very good," said Karl Verhulst, CA (formerly known as Computer Associates) Director-Marketing for Asia South.

"Ranked in the top five are countries like Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. The key things that differentiate Brunei from these countries are that these countries are very much wired-up. For instance, SouthKorea has a high Internet penetration in the world."

Mr Velhurst added that there is a close correlation between Internet access and the capability to deliver e-government initiatives. As for some of the typical recommendations put up by the study, it stated that the website should be easy to use and should not have complicated language. The website should also link with other ministries and be frequently updated.

Mr Velhurst said a lot of progress has been made on Brunei's e-Government, with a lot of portals having been made. "However, a lot of collaboration and focus needs to be made, so too is the marketing aspect to the Bruneian citizens," he said. "In Brunei there are 10 ministries on the portals where there are information on what are they're doing. The first step in e-government is the portal of information."

CA Malaysia yesterday mooted that effective IT management will be the key to Brunei's success in the next wave of its eGovernment initiative. This was shared with over 150 government officials at a recently held e-Government conference themed "Achieving Effective IT Management".

"The strong commitment and foresight of the Brunei Government saw the successful establishment of the essential framework and infrastructure as well as the adoption and awareness of the eGovernment programme in ministries and other key stakeholders over the last five years," said Queenie Wong, Managing Director of CA Malaysia at the conference.

The nation is now embarking on its second wave of development, which is focused on more citizen-centric projects.

"Governments around the globe are currently at various stages of e-government implementation as they endeavour to stay current with technological advances and enhance efficiency to better serve their citizens," added the MD.

"Brunei has made good progress over the last few years, and we are indeed delighted to have ongoing opportunities to share our expertise in e-government to further assist in their endeavour."

Commenting on the Brunei Government's focus on delivering services that are more citizen-centred, result-oriented and market based, Karl Verhulst said "Governments are faced with increasing pressure to address ongoing challenges such as the digital divide, privacy and security concerns and evolution of technology.

"This makes it even more crucial for governments to be able to manage their IT resources effectively and efficiently in order to ensure that they are maximising their investments and are keeping costs down," he added.

"The development and implementation of e-government is an ongoing process in which there will always be new technologies to consider, new policies and standards to meet, upgrades and maintenance to current systems.

"Without effective IT management, the process will result in considerable ICT investments and not receiving any measurable returns. The failure to respond quickly and effectively to the ever-changing ICT landscape would ultimately result in barriers to a successful e-government."

Industry experts at the conference addressed key issues critical to ensuring the successful deployment of Virtual Brunei Online. These included the strategies and ways to align IT investments to achieve maximum ROI, how to improve IT services according to ITIL best practices, managing IT operation costs and better IT risk management.-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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