'For Strong E-Govt, Up-To-Date Web Presence Needed'
By Fei Phoon

Bandar Seri Begawan - The government of Brunei Darussalam should regularly maintain its web presence in order to sell the idea of e- government to its citizens, advised senior professionals from a leading IT company.

They were speaking to members of the press, following an e-Government conference yesterday, themed "Achieving Effective IT Management". The event, organised by international leading IT management solutions provider CA, saw an attendance of around 150 government officials. The company has been involved in Brunei Darussalam's e-Government projects for the past three years.

Karl Verhulst, CA's marketing director for South Asia, praised the Bruneian government for its initiative in launching websites to represent itself online. "There is a portal which groups all the ministries together online; the basic infrastructure has already been laid," observed Verhulst.

He suggested that the next step would be for government departments to take inventory of their paper forms and produce downloadable versions for the convenience of the public.

"There should be consistency in the updating of websites across the government, because this practice would make information-sharing a relevant and useful experience for the citizens," said Verhulst. He added that having the same look and feel across all the government websites would strengthen its identity and ease navigation for its users.

"For now, the two most important things are that the content has to be good, and things have to work," he concluded.

Queenie Wong, managing director of CA, confirmed that implementation of Brunei's e-government would certainly have an impact on the nature of governance processes.

"The government will move from being nine-to-five to 24-7," she said. "How exactly? That will have to be examined by the government itself."

She added that there was no doubt collaborative efforts might have to be constantly revised to keep the e-government initiative on track, and in the direction of its unified goals.

"It should ultimately lead to more favourable government services for citizens," said Wong. "Brunei doesn't really differ much from other countries in the region," guest speaker Hee Keen Keong, director of Deloitte & Touche Enterprise Risk Services, said in reference to its present infrastructure and e-government mission. "I expect that it will only be a matter of time before people start asking, why can't we do all this online?" said Hee.

They also noted that guests at the event had shown marked interest in the idea of an IT service management framework to improve, regulate and supervise service delivery within an organisation, specifically the widely acknowledged IT Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, which provides the foundation for e-government infrastructure in the United Kingdom.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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