Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan – As Brunei is finalizing its long-term e-Government Strategic Master Plan for 2009-2014, several future challenges have been identified and need to be addressed, especially in relation to the issue of developing local human resource capacity in both the public and private sectors.

The Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister's Office Dato Seri Paduka Eussoff Agaki who is also the e-Government Leadership Forum (EGLF) chairman said this in his opening remarks during the e-Government Strategic Master Plan Industries Engagement discussion yesterday at the }damn International Hotel.

"Any e-Government projects must not only be technically driven in the sense that emphasis is heavily placed on hardware and technical issues. The human factor consideration must be given priority because whatever technology is adopted it must be utilized to the maximum benefits," said the Deputy Minister.

He also added that all the stakeholders must seriously address the need to develop local expertise and competence& in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) domain such as Business Process Re-engineering (HER), project management, application and web development, iCT infrastructure and architecture, .cyber security and such.

In order to sustain the growth of the ICT domain, Dato Paduka Eussoff Agaki said, "We need to take steps towards reducing our reliance on foreign expertise and address the need to cultivate local specialists in these areas.

"In that context, the Prime Minister's Office welcomes initiatives in leveraging Public Private Partnership (PPP) to enhance the delivery of e-Government, which will expand the access to, and delivery of public services to benefit the citizens, businesses and employees. This will also create opportunities for businesses as well as enhancing the national ICT capacity and capability."

The Deputy Minister highlighted that these challenges cannot be left entirely to the government to tackle. Support and collaboration of the private sector and industry are in fact necessary to ensure success.

The main objectives for yesterday's industries engagement were to disseminate and communicate the e-Government strategies and plan, which was presented by the organizers and secondly, to provide the forum for the industries to comment and share their thoughts on the draft long term e-Government Strategic Master Plan.

More than 35 companies from various industries took part in the discussion, as it was an opportunity for them to interact and contribute their ideas.

In the PMO Deputy Minister's opening remarks, he also noted that governments from all over the world are facing increasing challenges from various stakeholders to improve the quality and provision of public services.

"His Majesty's government is continuously improving the pace of economic development through measures such as attracting more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and developing the local SMEs," Dato Seri Paduka Eussoff Agaki said.

The Deputy Minister further added, "The Government is also looking at various strategies to enhance the development of several key areas including downstream oil and gas industries and ICT."

Within Brunei Darussalam's [CT industry, the e-Government initiative is one of the key elements. E-Government provides a way forward for increased efficiency by allowing better delivery of public services, improving access to information and increasing accountability of government to its citizens, he continued to say.

The Date also shared that the importance of e-Government as one of the major enablers of good governance practices has been recognized by most governments in the world. E-Government in Brunei started in 2000 and a review of its implementation was conducted six years later, in 2006.

The e-Government projects implemented prior to the review were largely infrastructural in nature such as the provision of data centered and acquisition of the latest hardware and software, he said while continued to add, one of the successful e-Government projects implemented is the Treasury Accounting and Financial Information System or TAFIS. "However, the lack of HR ICT capacity and capability, notably the shortage of qualified manpower was cited as one of the key issues that required serious attention," the Deputy Minister said.

He added that last year, an interim short and medium term strategy was formulated that focuses on three man components namely; the initial strategy; civil service reform and innovation and; Government and citizen centric services.

The component on the civil service reform and innovation includes change management programs whilst the component of Government and Citizen Centric Services include enhancing websites and Government Employees System (GEMS) as well as transactional services that will enable business startup online and implementation of Public key Infrastructure for the Government, the Deputy Minister stated. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin