Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Deputy Minister of Communications, Dato Paduka Haji Yusof bin Haji Abd Hamid, highlighted the importance of e-readiness as a step towards a more effective and innovative e-government yesterday at the THIN KBIG National Technology Forum held at the Empire Hotel and Country Club.

According to the Economic Intelligence Unit, e-readiness is the measure of the quality of a country's ICT infrastructure and its ability to leverage digital channels for communication, commerce and government in order to further economic and social development, determining the extent to which the usage of communication devices and internet services create efficiencies for businesses and citizens.

The United Nations 2005 Global e-government Readiness report lists Brunei at 73, measuring how ready the government is to employ the opportunities offered by ICT and improve access to ICTs in providing basic social services.

Addressing over 200 participants including Government CIOs, ICT industry leaders, entrepreneurs, telecommunication companies and others, the deputy minister listed several key components that are central in building the country's e-readiness.

"The physical communications infrastructure and the extent to which access infrastructure reaches a majority of the people is the foundation for a country's e-readiness," said the deputy minister, emphasising the substantial economic value that communications connectivity brings to business and individuals.

He also spoke of the country's participation in building the Asia-America Gateway or AAG submarine cable project, alongside other parties in the region and the US.

"This project represents a Strategic investment that will strengthen the security, and safeguard Brunei's interest by ensuring secure and continuous communication with the outside world," he stated, also noting the enhancement of Brunei's last mile connectivity to complement the efforts in strengthening its international connectivity.

"The Ministry of Communications recently, through AiTi, are moving towards Wireless Broadband Access (WBA) for the nation," revealed the deputy minister.

This is in addition to the current prospects of deploying fibre optics to the homes as another policy move in delivering high speed broadband services to local households.

"I strongly hope these new developments will indirectly spur and encourage local content or creative media developers in venturing as content providers to this potentially growing broadband sector of services in Brunei Darussalam."

He also cited new significant developments in e-government in response to the growing demands for ICT knowledge and ICT-oriented services.

In a 2005 review of e-Government, the Ministry together with a team of external consultants revealed the need for a more integrated implementation and a greater sense of ownership as well as an improvement in technical ability and independence.

The result, the deputy minister said, was the establishment of the e-Government Technical Authority Body (EGTAB) to provide technical advice and expertise on e-Government project implementation across the country.

Brian Koh, Management Advisor for iCentre, acknowledged this need for the advancement of SMEs. "What is important is the execution — how the execution can be implemented from the different ministries and how the Ministry of Communications together with the Prime Minister's Office can work to push more of these e-government projects through," he said.

"E-readiness is more than just building infrastructure," said the deputy minister. "It is also a measure of our success in our ICT strategy against other countries” and provides investors with decisions on the best place to locate their investment."

The forum on "Innovation... Embracing New Media" was the first of its kind in Brunei and saw six different speakers who are leaders of the industry. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin