Tuesday, 7 September 2010
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Central Government
Singapore Police reveals social media strategy
One of Asia’s best examples of the public sector making good use of social media is the Singapore Police Force on Facebook. In an interview with FutureGov, Assistant Commissioner Ng Guat Ting, Director of Public Affairs, explained how SPF has used social media to keep the public informed and reduce crime.
Central Government
Security
The world’s most advanced smart ID card?
Starting on 1st November, the Germany government is to roll ...
6 September 2010 | News
How ICT is helping to feed Indonesia
Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture has the task of feeding a population that is expected to grow from 238 million in 2010 to 288 million within the decade. The Ministry’s IT division head told FutureGov how an annual budget of four billion rupiah (US$444,000) is being spent on ICTs to better equip farmers with information they can use to boost productivity.
5 September 2010 | News
Hackers raise cyber security fears in Philippines
The vulnerability of the Philippines’ government web sites was again exposed by hackers last week, prompting renewed calls for the introduction of a Cybercrime Bill which has been on the legislative backburner for a decade.
2 September 2010 | News
India targets Google and Skype on data security
First BlackBerry. Now Google and Skype. The government of India not only wants BlackBerry to build data centres within its borders so that its intelligence agencies can more easily monitor communications. It wants Google and Skype to do the same.
1 September 2010 | News
Taiwan reveals e-govt plans at FutureGov Summit China
Speaking to 120 senior government officials at today’s FutureGov Summit China in Dalian, Dale Su, Director of Information Management Office, Examination Yuan revealed Taiwan’s plan to become an ‘Intelligent Government’.
31 August 2010 | News
Australia's open govt data drive
The economic value of government information can increase four-fold within a year if it is made freely available to public. Its social value could increase by even more. So thinks Peter Harper, Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s Bureau of Statistics, who says that public services are on the “cusp of a revolution” driven by open government data.
31 August 2010 | News
Singapore govt's answer to YouTube
In March this year, Singapore launched its own version of YouTube. Government agencies can now upload videos on to a site that gives them copyright ownership and a controlled environment. In an interview with FutureGov, the Infocomm Development Authority also revealed how using the cloud has saved the government US$4000 a month per video.
31 August 2010 | News
Educators pursue FutureGov Award
As nominations for the FutureGov Awards flood in to meet the deadline for entries, which has been extended to Thursday 9th September, competition is heating up in a new category introduced this year: education. So far, entries from Malaysia, Australia, and Singapore, are in the running to impress the judges.
30 August 2010 | News
Philippines' new govt ICT chief on challenges ahead
Ivan Uy, the newly appointed Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology in the Philippines, has revealed his priorities in an interview with FutureGov. The CICT’s future has been in doubt since before the general elections in May, when a bill to create a full-fledged department of ICT was thrown out by congress.
25 August 2010 | News
Competition heats up for FutureGov Awards
An application system that could save Australian businesses US$4.4 million. A Thai e-business registry that validates 1000 applicants in a year. Remote sensors that could conserve water for 400,000 households in India. Just three of the nominations that will test the judges at the 2010 FutureGov Awards in October.
24 August 2010 | News
Telemedicine and the future of healthcare
Thousands of children have benefitted from the telepaediatric service carried out by the University of Queensland’s Centre for Online Health in Brisbane. Dr Anthony Smith, Deputy Director of the Centre, talked to FutureGov about the expanding scope of telemedicine and what it means to the future of healthcare.
24 August 2010 | News
The world’s most sustainable city?
Imagine a city powered almost entirely by the sun. A city in which smart homes use energy only when it is needed, where driverless electric cars ferry passengers to work in low-emission buildings, and where healthcare, education, public safety and transport systems ‘talk’ to each other, getting people to hospital quicker and children to school on time. Could this city be in Asia?
23 August 2010 | News
E-elections put to vote in Australia and Indonesia
The government of Australia, currently in the throes of a general election, is toying with the idea of automated polling for the next election, an Australian Electoral Commission official has told FutureGov. Meanwhile Indonesia has revealed plans to introduce electronic voting in time for the country’s next presidential election in 2014.
23 August 2010 | News
Malaysia’s cyber defences ready for Independence Day
There is one week to go before Hari Medeka, Malaysia’s Independence Day celebrations (August 31st), which last year were blighted by attacks by Indonesian hackers on Malaysian web sites. In an interview with FutureGov, the head of national security agency CyberSecurity Malaysia revealed how the government has been securing its cyber borders.
18 August 2010 | News
Education network to connect NZ schools
More New Zealand schools will have the opportunity to participate in a trial investigating the viability of a National Education Network (NEN). A NEN offers online access to a range of education-related content and services to schools via ultra-fast broadband.
17 August 2010 | News
E-learning campus connects students
Temasek Polytechnic (TP), iEcopolis and LG Electronics Singapore last week (11 Aug 2010) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that kick-started an initiative to develop the Polytechnic’s i-Digital Campus. In an interview with FutureGov, TP’s Mr Lim Chong Jin and Dr Yin Choon Meng (pictured) revealed the opportunities the partnership would bring to the campus’ 15,000 student population.
17 August 2010 | News
HK govt puts cloud to the test
Hong Kong’s Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has said that while cloud computing could have “profound implications” for how government procures IT, “major issues” stand in the way of adoption.
16 August 2010 | News
Uneven progress for anti-poverty push
In an interview with FutureGov, Malaysia’s Prime Minister’s Department has said that geographical and logistical constraints are hampering the government’s anti-poverty campaign in the east of the country, and its mission to completely eradicate hardcore poverty by December 2010 may not be achievable.
16 August 2010 | News
Is Facebook suitable for govt transactions?
Last week, an airline in the United States became the first company to allow customers to book directly through its Facebook page. Will citizens soon be able to transact directly with government on social media? In interviews with FutureGov, officials in Indonesia, Australia and Singapore say that despite data security concerns, some government transactions on Facebook or Twitter will very soon be possible.
11 August 2010 | News
Local govts focus on digital inclusion
Since January 2004, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China has been carrying out the Cun Cun Tong, or Village Connected Project. As the venture draws to a close, Wang Zhen Jian, Director of the Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Informatisation, spoke to FutureGov about what’s been achieved so far.
10 August 2010 | News
Smart phones for smart healthcare
A group of researchers from Saint Louis University and Old Dominion University have been studying how smart phones can help elderly diabetics in China manage their health. Dr Maggie Jiao Ma (pictured), Assistant Professor of the Department of Aviation Science at Saint Louis University, gave FutureGov a progress report.
10 August 2010 | News
Facial recognition in schools tackles truancy
Taiwan’s Chung Hua University has hatched a plan to introduce facial recognition technology to its roll call system in a bid to clamp down on truancy.
10 August 2010 | News
School ICT project on track
Despite a change in government following a general election in May, the Philippines’ iSchools Project is on course to computerise 1000 public schools across the archipelago. Project Manager Toni Torres said that while incoming regime would mean new priorities, she was confident the project would meet its target.
6 August 2010 | News
BlackBerry data encryption in Asia
After a jittery week for Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, the Indonesian government has said that it will not ban the popular device. But what about governments elsewhere around the world?
3 August 2010 | News
Email with a pen, paper and a mobile phone?
Citizens in India will soon be able to send emails using a pen, paper and mobile phone camera. HP Labs based in Bangalore are in the final stages of developing new technology that would enable any mobile phone with a camera to become an emailing device.
3 August 2010 | News
Ex-US GCIO warns on cloud security
In an interview with FutureGov, a former United States cabinet-level government CIO said that policymakers in Asia are right to be cautious about cloud computing, and should think carefully about the risks they are taking before they take the plunge.
2 August 2010 | News
Malaysian tax office rolls out app visibility device
As part of a push to meet rising demand from tax payers for electronic transactions, the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia has invested RM4.37 million (US$1.4 million) in solutions that indicate which of the department’s business applications are of greatest strategic value.
30 July 2010 | News
How useful is Twitter’s government service?
The news that Twitter will launch a service for public servants has been met with interest from prominent tweeting officials in Asia. However, Trudy Rankin, CIO of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, told FutureGov that government business should not be dictated to by the popular micro-blogging site.
28 July 2010 | News
Australia’s GCIO talks tough at FutureGov Forum
Australia’s Government Chief Information Officer, Ann Steward, urged civil servants to become “Gov 2.0 activists” at the FutureGov Forum Australia this week (Tuesday 27th July). She also had strong words for government agencies on the accessibility of their online services.
24 July 2010 | News
Better learning with web 2.0 and virtual worlds
In a visit to Ngee Ann Secondary School yesterday (22 July), FutureGov found students deeply engaged in learning. Students were strolling down corridors of 3D virtual art galleries or were chatting away with William Shakespeare. These were two of many other initiatives aimed at making the school a pace setter and leader for the innovative use of technology in teaching and learning.
22 July 2010 | News
Singapore’s labour dept cuts office visits by 75%
Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower has reduced the number of daily visitors to its offices to submit documents by 75 per cent through the introduction an electronic document submission system.
22 July 2010 | News
Social networks: Indonesia's fifth estate?
Social networks in Indonesia have become the country’s “fifth estate” - they are shaping democracy and policymaking. So says the commissioner of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (BRTI), Heru Sutardi, who points to recent cases of where Indonesians have used social networks to amass public support and pressure governments.
22 July 2010 | News
Mobile security risks for the public sector
According to a survey published this week, the biggest digital security concerns among Asian citizens relate to their mobile devices. In an interview with FutureGov, a leading academic has urged governments to do more to educate citizens and public sector workers on the importance of information security on mobile devices.
21 July 2010 | News
Seoul tops global cities ranking for e-govt
The South Korean capital of Seoul is the world’s most advanced municipal e-government, according to a global survey of city web sites. The “Soul of Asia” topped the UN-sponsored table ahead of Prague, Hong Kong, New York and Singapore on the usability, content, services, privacy and inclusiveness of its online operations.
20 July 2010 | News
The dangers of teaching in virtual worlds
Virtual worlds such as Second Life and Facebook are engaging and motivating students as never before. There are, however, risks beyond the teachers’ control that students could access undesirable content or interact with anonymous users.
20 July 2010 | News
Japan trials full-body scanners
Despite widespread concerns over privacy, Japan has started testing full-body scanners at its busiest airport. The tests come six months after security services failed to detect explosives concealed in a terrorist’s underwear on a US-bound aircraft from the Netherlands.
20 July 2010 | News
IT literacy tackled in Indian state
With less than two months to go, time is running out to show results from a key digital inclusion project in the Indian State of Kerala. Dr Rathan Kelkar, Director of the Kerala State IT Mission, spoke to FutureGov to highlight the achievements of Project Sameeksha.
19 July 2010 | News
Cloud helps universities cut costs by 74%
Queensland University of Technology in Australia leveraged cloud computing to provide enterprise software to more than 140 universities in Asia Pacific. Glenn Stewart, Professor of Information Systems revealed how the university dramatically reduced costs while it enjoyed greater assurance and scaleability.
13 July 2010 | News
Sabah government’s first major digital inclusion project
Malaysia’s second largest state, Sabah, announced its first major investment – worth a total of RM383 million (US$119 million) – to bridge the digital divide.
12 July 2010 | News
Green growth is key to city’s success, says Busan Mayor
“The number one measure of a successful city is environmental sustainability,” Vice Mayor Jeong Lak-hyong of Busan Metropolitan City told FutureGov in an exclusive interview.
6 July 2010 | News
HK varsity builds collaborative environment
The digital and physical learning environment must respond to, and reflect, the increased need for collaboration among students and educators, Geoffrey Dengate, Director, Information Technology Services, The University of Hong Kong told FutureGov.
6 July 2010 | News
China’s Health Ministry to invest in RFID
China’s Ministry of Health has announced plans to ramp up the use of RFID technology to increase the safety and effectiveness of medical and healthcare services.
6 July 2010 | News
Citizen engagement top priority for Yokohama Mayor
Citizen engagement, economic growth and quality of life are the key ingredients to a successful city, Fumiko Hayashi, Mayor of Yokohama, Japan told FutureGov in an interview.
6 July 2010 | News
Should internet access be a basic human right?
How valuable to human life is information? Well, in Finland it is now a basic human right - like food, shelter or clean water. Every citizen and business in the home of Nokia should - by law – be granted access to broadband internet services, the government decreed on July 1st 2010. Should Asia follow suit?
1 July 2010 | News
China info chief hails smart city project
Guangzhou is investing RMB100 million (US$15 million) annually in new technologies as part of a plan to develop into a ‘smart’ city. The ‘Intelligent Guangzhou’ project will see ‘internet of things’ applications designed, manufactured and deployed across the city - China’s third largest - with a major roll-out expected by 2013.
29 June 2010 | News
Japan reveals key e-govt projects
In an exclusive interview with FutureGov, Japan’s e-government expert Kyosuke Tsuji, Deputy Director, Administrative Management Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, revealed his country’s priority projects - IT consolidation and improving citizen service delivery.
28 June 2010 | News
India’s e-driver’s licence project hits 10m
In what has been billed as the largest project of its kind of the world, the government of India has passed the 10 million mark for issuing electronic driver’s licences. Of the country’s 110 million drivers, nine per cent have now been registered with electronic driving certificates, according to Gemalto, a digital security firm involved in the project.
25 June 2010 | News
Singapore awards US$144m EHR contract
A consortium made up by Accenture, Oracle, and Orion Health has won Singapore’s National Electronic Health Record project, a credible source has told FutureGov. The source said that the consortia bidding for the multi-million dollar project had been notified of the result; an official announcement is expected this week.
22 June 2010 | News
Open data guru urges govts to let go
One of the architects of the Obama Administration’s technology policy has hailed open data as a means to usher in a new era for accountability, collaboration and innovation in the public sector. But he insisted that for open data to live up to its promise, governments must learn to “let go” and embrace a culture of openness and accountability.
21 June 2010 | News
Lessons from the Philippines’ first e-election
Although the US$155 million project was fraught with technical difficulties and controversy, the Philippines’ first computerised election has been hailed an historic success. FutureGov caught up with the Chairman of the Advisory Council for the Commission on Elections, Ray Roxas-Chua, to ask how Asia’s first democracy could go one better next time round.
21 June 2010 | News
Are cancer maps a good idea?
The New York State Department of Health recently launched a series of ‘cancer maps’ which allow users to view incidences of cancer in a given geographical area. These maps, which are freely available online, are not without controversy. Could the idea work in Asia?
17 June 2010 | News
South Korea and Singapore sign e-government pact
Two of Asia’s biggest exporters of e-government systems, South Korea and Singapore, have struck a deal to share ideas and lessons learned on e-government service delivery and strategy. The memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed June 16th 2010, will see the two countries collaborate on e-government projects and support…
10 June 2010 | News
Singapore’s healthcare IT journey: lessons learned
The head of IT for Singapore’s healthcare institutions has revealed the lessons she has learned in implementing new projects. Speaking at the FutureHealth Forum yesterday (9th May 2010), Dr Chong Yoke Sin, CEO of Integrated Health Information Systems, said that patient safety is the most powerful argument to get buy-in from clinicians.
8 June 2010 | News
India to launch e-passport services
A surge in demand for passport services has prompted the Government of India to undertake a pilot project to issue its citizens with e-passports.
7 June 2010 | News
Asia dominates global spam league
More than one third of the world’s spam originates from Asia, with India, South Korea and Vietnam in the top-five worst offending countries. However, spam coming from China has dramatically reduced, according to a Sophos report.
7 June 2010 | News
Asian govts push privacy awareness
The Commissioners of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA), constituting representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, and Hong Kong, celebrated the annual Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) by promoting a slew of initiatives aimed at informing the public about privacy concerns.
7 June 2010 | News
UN reveals changes to E-Government rankings
In an interview with FutureGov, the director of the United Nations E-Government rankings has revealed how the next survey will be modified to stay up to date with emerging trends.
3 June 2010 | News
Scientists design cow dung-powered data centre
Researchers have found a way to combine dairy farm waste and the heat generated from data centres to create a sustainable ecosystem.
1 June 2010 | News
World’s largest public safety radio network planned
The Federal Agency for Digital Radio of Security Authorities and Organisations (BDBOS) in Germany is in the process of rolling out the world’s largest radio network for public safety.
31 May 2010 | News
Japan to help India build green cities
India has hatched plans to build state-of-the-art, eco-friendly habitats with world-class facilities with the help of Japanese technology firms. The likes of Hitachi, Mitsubishi, JGC Corp and Toshiba will design and build the eco-friendly towns along the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), passing through six Indian states.
31 May 2010 | News
Should civil servants be paid by performance?
Civil servants have a reputation for complacency at work, and doing only the bare minimum to get by to keep their jobs. Unfair? Probably. With this in mind, FutureGov asked senior public sector modernisers in China, India, Malaysia and Singapore if they think civil servants should be paid by performance.
31 May 2010 | News
Public sector network management - improving?
Some good news and some bad news. Education and healthcare institutions in Asia are managing the lifecycle of their IT assets more efficiently, and are getting better at making their systems more secure. But configuration errors, such as faulty encryption settings or incompatible device drivers, are an area the public sector did not improve on over the past year, according to a survey by Datacraft.
24 May 2010 | News
Facebook warns govt users on privacy
More than 2000 Facebook pages are used by 35 federal agencies in the United States. Many more government agencies in Asia are now on Facebook, amassing millions of fans. But government Facebookers should be mindful of privacy issues when archiving content, a Facebook spokesman has cautioned in an interview with FutureGov.
21 May 2010 | News
World City Prize winner revealed
The inaugural Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize has been awarded to Bilbao. The Spanish city famous for the Guggenheim art museum was picked from 78 nominations from 32 countries for a “knowledge revolution” that transformed a fading post-industrial city into a vibrant culture and business hub.
20 May 2010 | News
Indian cities deploy smart surveillance
New Delhi State Police and Uttarkhand State Traffic Police have deployed an intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) in four of their cities in order to better monitor traffic. IP fixed and Pan, Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) cameras have been installed at a total of 40 locations across New Delhi, Dehradun, Kashipur, and Rudrapur.
19 May 2010 | News
Optional EHR for every Australian by 2012
The Australian Government plans to spend US$400 million over the next two years to create an electronic health record for every Australian who opts to have one.
18 May 2010 | News
OECD plots next generation e-govt indicators
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has entered talks with the producers of the major global e-government surveys with a view to launching new e-government indicators that focus on public sector performance.
18 May 2010 | News
Chinese city deploys 4G wireless for smart enforcement
The east coast Chinese city of Ningbo is investing 600 million yuan (US$xx million) in a forth generation wireless communications network that it hopes will make the municipality’s emergency services more efficient and pave the way for ‘smart law enforcement’.
17 May 2010 | News
Malaysian education group integrates student info system
With eleven campuses across Malaysia and Indonesia each running stand-alone student management systems, INTI Education Group (INTI) had difficulties maintaining an updated and accurate report on its students. According to Richard Pany, Group Chief Information Officer at INTI, there was a lot of manual processing of data and duplicated information and effort, resulting in inaccuracy of information.
17 May 2010 | News
The Philippines hails election automation a success
Critics said the Philippines’ first automated election was certain to fail. But on May 11th, the day after the country’s presidential, vice presidential and senatorial elections saw more than 53 million Filipinos vote using 76,347 Precinct Count Optical Scan machines, the process was declared the cleanest, fastest, and most orderly election yet.
13 May 2010 | News
Indonesia reveals plans to bridge digital divide
In an interview with FutureGov, the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (BRTI) has shared its plans to connect half of Asia’s third largest population to the internet by 2015.
12 May 2010 | News
Role of ICT in education debated at FutureCampus
Is technology driving teaching, or teaching driving technology? This question was at the centre of debate among Asia’s leading educators at the FutureCampus Forum in Singapore last week (Wednesday 12th May 2010).
11 May 2010 | News
Singapore reveals US$800m ICT procurement plans
The Singapore government has unveiled plans to spend S$1.1 billion (US$800 million) on ICT in the 2010 financial year, with a new government portal and a revamped road monitoring system among the 350 government ICT projects in the pipeline.
11 May 2010 | News
World Bank opens up development data
The World Bank is the latest information-rich organisation to free up its data for public consumption. The portal data.worldbank.org will give policymakers access to more than 2000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics, information that was previously exclusive to paying subscribers.
10 May 2010 | News
Indian state reaches poor via mobile phone
The state of Rajasthan in northern India has launched an e-governance initiative that aims to communicate essential information to the underprivileged via mobile phones. The system incorporates data migration, text-to-speech conversion in local languages, automatic dialing, and voice message transmission.
7 May 2010 | News
Singapore automates Youth Olympics
Two thousand computers, 170 servers and 500 network devices will be deployed in 18 competition venues to serve 26 sporting events, 5000 athletes, 1200 press, 20,000 volunteers, and an estimated 500,000 spectators when the Singapore Youth Olympics get underway in 13 weeks time.
7 May 2010 | News
Are you ready for the digital Big Bang?
Within the next decade, the volume of data amassed in the world will be equivalent to a stack of DVDs reaching halfway from earth to mars. Data streaming through cables and airwaves will amount to 35 trillion gigabytes by 2020, a 44-fold increase in the volume of information around today.
5 May 2010 | News
Singapore govt calls for cloud proposals
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has reaffirmed its commitment to Cloud Computing by calling for proposals for “innovative” cloud-based projects. For selected Singapore-registered organisations, both private and public, the government will subsidise the use of cloud services by 50 to 100 per cent, depending on qualifying criteria.
4 May 2010 | News
ADB urges developing govts to engage private sector
The Asian Development Bank has called on governments in developing countries to create more opportunities for the private sector to “turn the digital divide into a digital opportunity” to aid the fight against poverty.
4 May 2010 | News
Why the Philippines needs a GCIO
Without a Government Chief Information Officer and an IT department with clout, the Philippines will be left behind the rest of Asia in terms of the efficiency and accountability of its government. So says the head of the Chief Information Officers Forum, a foundation set up to promote ICT-led governance in the archipelago.
28 April 2010 | News
How govts are making sense of social media
Social media presents government with a headache-inducing glut of unstructured data from which it is difficult to make any sense. But as governments in Australia, Hong Kong and Europe reveal in interviews with FutureGov, analytics tools that trawl blogs and social networks are helping to test public sentiment and shape policy with increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
20 April 2010 | News
A statistician’s approach to data management
The Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University is studying the relationship between the well being of students and their academic performance at school. Tan Teck Kiang, Research Associate at the centre, revealed the challenges of making sense of large, complex data sets in an interview with FutureGov.
20 April 2010 | News
Washington fraud-busters turn to social analytics
Faced with a US$1.8 billion budget deficit plus staff cuts and pay freezes in the civil service, losing millions to fraud is the last thing the state of Washington needs. In an interview with FutureGov in Seattle last week, fraud detection agents from Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) revealed how social networking business analytics is curbing the rise of compensation cheats.
20 April 2010 | News
Why CCTV is a priority for Asian homeland security
Surveillance technology continues to be a focus of Asian governments’ public safety strategies. Over 100 security professionals gathered at the fourth annual FutureCCTV Forum this week to discuss the most effective ways of using CCTV. Government officials from Hong Kong, Brunei and Singapore shared their experiences with FutureGov.
20 April 2010 | News
What role will govt play in social web of the future?
In the not too distant future, a new generation of social media will be administered by virtual civil servants and patrolled by cyber sheriffs. Highly evolved versions of Second Life, where netizens meet, trade, and play, will also become places where policy is debated and decided. Sound fanciful? Well, this is the way the world is headed, predicts futurist and author Thornton May.
11 April 2010 | News
Why gov 2.0 calls for risk managers
If governments are to use social media more effectively, they must learn to operate in environments over which they have no control. In interviews with FutureGov, government modernisers from Hong Kong, Australia and the UK said that the “wild west” of web 2.0 calls for a new approach to risk management.
11 April 2010 | News
Singapore heritage game replaces fantasy with facts
Singapore’s National Heritage Board is launching an online game in the style of the multiplayer epic World of Warcraft to encourage learning in a context popular with young people. Replacing fantasy with facts, World of Temasek, which is set in 14th century Singapore, gets players hunting for ‘real’ historical artifacts that can be found in museums locally.
9 April 2010 | News
Korea exports e-government model to Japan
One hundred years after South Korea adopted Japan’s administrative system under colonial rule, Korea has struck an historic deal to sell its e-government model to Japan. In an interview with FutureGov, a leading Korean academic in public administration said the deal marked a shift for Korea “from playing catch-up to leading the way” for e-government in East Asia.
8 April 2010 | News
Do the benefits of open govt data outweigh the costs?
“Data belongs to the people, particularly that held by the public sector,” Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said recently. But putting government data online is not without risks. FutureGov asked officials in Singapore - which launched an open data initiative last week - South Korea, the UK and the Netherlands whether they feel that the benefits of open government data outweigh the costs.
7 April 2010 | News
India’s IT chief calls for closer private sector ties
Speaking to over 150 senior government officials at the FutureGov Forum India 2010 this morning, R. Chandrashekhar, Secretary IT, Ministry of Communications and Technology of India, revealed the growing opportunities of citizen service delivery through mobile phones and the need for closer Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
6 April 2010 | News
New classroom learning technologies
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) believes in combining the best of traditional classroom and online learning. Steve Ryan, Director, Centre for Learning Technology, revealed two technologies – clickers and lecture capture – which have proved to enhance the learning experience.
5 April 2010 | News
China Press Bureau rolls out data sharing platform
China’s Press and Publication Bureau has created a unified platform to manage and share information for its offices in 12 provinces across the country.
5 April 2010 | News
Singapore launches smart map portal
Sixteen government agencies in Singapore have joined forces to launch an intelligent online map portal. Built using web 2.0 technologies, ‘OneMap’ enables government agencies, citizens and businesses to mash-up geospatial data for their own purposes. The S$2.2 million (US$1.8 million) project is the first major product of the Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment (SG-SPACE) initiative, a whole-of-government push to spur innovation using map-based information.
5 April 2010 | News
Are civil servants cut out for social media?
Most senior civil servants are Baby Boomers or Generation Xers, born at a time without the internet. But does this mean that web communities are too ‘young’ for top officials to operate in effectively? In interviews with FutureGov, government officials from Australia, Malaysia and the UK argue that although civil servants may not feel comfortable using social media to reach young citizens, the rewards are worth the risks.
30 March 2010 | News
Japanese teachers embrace collaborative learning
Integrating technology into the classroom requires pedagogical judgment. Teachers who are familiar with the curriculum and their students are in the best position to drive change. FutureGov spoke to three elementary school teachers in Japan who have leveraged IT in their own unique ways to help students learn better.
30 March 2010 | News
E-learning delivers results for Uni in HK
In recent years, there has been an upsurge in e-learning at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Speaking to FutureGov, Dr. Carmel McNaught, Director & Professor of Learning Enhancement, Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research, whose Centre works closely with the IT Services Centre in e-learning development, discussed major e-learning initiatives and their impact.
29 March 2010 | News
Philippines confident in looming e-elections
In an interview with FutureGov in Manila last week, Jose Melo, Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), said he is confident that the technology used for the Philippines’ first-ever computerised election will hold firm when 50 million Filipinos head for the polls on May 10th, and that much opposition to automation has come from those who “no longer know how to cheat.”
29 March 2010 | News
Singapore Health Ministry on social media
With its Minister blogging personally about topical healthcare issues and sharing policy issues on Facebook, the Singapore Health Ministry is now seen as an example of how to engage citizens using social media. Karen Tan, the Ministry’s Director of Communications, shares the journey as well as the learning points.
26 March 2010 | News
Hong Kong revamps govt portal
Hong Kong’s government web portal has been revamped with a new layout and enhanced functionality. The simple and goal-oriented design aims to make the GovHK more useable and efficient, providing a ‘lively and close-to-market’ experience for users.
23 March 2010 | News
Singapore bolsters cyber defences
Singapore is boosting the defences of its online critical infrastructure. Policy changes, technical controls and competency building measures will roll out this year in response to a growing cyber security threat that has seen South Korea and the United States hit by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in the last 12 months.
19 March 2010 | News
MIT reveals leading edutech projects
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a dedicated team which drives the innovative use of technology in teaching and learning. Speaking exclusively to FutureGov, Vijay Kumar, who heads the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, revealed its key IT projects for 2010.
19 March 2010 | News
Will Facebook profiles replace govt web sites?
It’s all the rage for ministries and agencies to have a Facebook pages these days. Government is going where its citizens are. So why bother having a web site at all? The idea may seem farfetched. But as officials from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Netherlands reveal in interviews with FutureGov, government web sites could disappear into the ‘social cloud’ sooner than we think.
19 March 2010 | News
Dalian to host inaugural FutureGov Summit China
FutureGov magazine and the Dalian Municipal Government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the organisation of the first ever FutureGov Summit China, to be held on the 1-2 September 2010.
17 March 2010 | News
India’s govt performance guru delivers key speech
It is nine months since the Government of India announced a plan to overhaul the way it measures how well it is serving the public. The man behind that plan is Dr Prajapati Trivedi, a former economist at the World Bank and now the Indian government’s Chief Performance Officer, who will reveal how India is living up to its performance …
16 March 2010 | News
Australian Uni takes bold steps into cloud
Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia is deploying a private cloud which will be operational by mid this year. CIO Peter Nikoletatos told FutureGov of the challenges he faces and the rewards he expects from migrating into the cloud.
12 March 2010 | News
How government web sites build citizen trust
Government modernisers in Asia and Europe have stressed the importance of building transparent official web sites as a way to boost citizen trust. In interviews with FutureGov, public sector experts from Singapore and the Netherlands said that more needs to be done to make information on government web sites more accessible, timely and searchable if closer ties are to be built with netizens.
9 March 2010 | News
Singapore primary school skypes America
Students from Singapore and California overcame physical boundaries and engaged in real-time cultural exchange. Troy Tenhet and Rose Manuel, Directors of Global Learning Exchange programme told FutureGov how internet video calls closed the 14,000 kilometres gap.
9 March 2010 | News
OGCIO reveals 2010 priorities at FutureGov Forum HK
Hong Kong’s Government Chief Information Officer Jeremy Godfrey laid out his department’s plans for this year and beyond at the FutureGov Forum Hong Kong this week (Tuesday, March 9th 2010). Joined-up government, driving greater efficiencies, exploiting opportunities of cloud and social computing, and using IT to tackle climate change will be the “big five policy drivers” for Godfrey’s team in 2010.
9 March 2010 | News
Japanese uni embraces mobile learning
Mobile learning has gained popularity among Japanese students at the Keio University. Fumitoshi Kato, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, explained to FutureGov how social networking and new media tools have enhanced the learning experience.
8 March 2010 | News
Are mobile devices secure enough for govt services?
More than 50 per cent of electronic government services are now delivered on mobile phones in South Korea, the world’s most advanced mobile telephony market. But are mobile devices secure enough to support government services? In an interview with FutureGov, Professor Cheol Oh, a member of the Presidential Committee for …
3 March 2010 | News
Singapore overhauls free wireless service
The Singapore government has revamped its free, nationwide wireless internet service Wireless@SG to give citizens and businesses faster and easier access to the internet. It is hoped that the service – which will be free until 2013 - will boost innovation and business activity as the island nation’s economy emerges from recession.
2 March 2010 | News
How single ID improved interaction with govt
To make it convenient for entities to interact with all government agencies, the Singapore government launched a multi-agency ICT project to implement a standardised identification number for each entity. Winston Wee, Head of Integrated Services, Ministry of Finance (MOF) told FutureGov of the challenges faced during project implementation and how they were overcome.
2 March 2010 | News
Turkey’s GCIO reveals success of citizen ID
Speaking exclusively to FutureGov, Dr. Ramazan Altinok, Head of E-government Project Group, Office of the Prime Minister of Turkey revealed how the government successfully implemeted a national ID database which formed the backbone of the country’s e-government infrastructure.
1 March 2010 | News
Citizens of Asia speak out on ID cards
In the run-up to the launch of the biggest citizen identity project ever attempted, privacy concerns are playing a defining role in the Unique Identification Authority of India’s plans to issue 1.2 billion people with their own ID number. With this in mind, FutureGov quizzed citizens in Asia for a regional snapshot of what people really think about ID cards.
1 March 2010 | News
UN defends relevance of e-government rankings
The United Nations has refuted suggestions that its E-government Survey has lost relevance in an era of increasingly diverse e-government ecosystems. The survey’s director, Haiyan Qian, told FutureGov that the rankings continue to serve as a guide to more efficient, open and transparent governance, and help public sector modernisers “put money in the right places” and avoid commonly made mistakes.
21 February 2010 | News
New Korean IT Agency President reveals priorities
Korea’s National Computing and Information Agency has placed cloud computing technologies, green IT and information security as top three priorities for 2010. Newly appointed President Chang Kwang-soo revealed to FutureGov his five-pronged strategy for the challenges ahead.
21 February 2010 | News
Korea hails California’s govt IT strategy
The South Korean government’s Director of Green IT has described the government of California’s plan to cut the energy its IT operations use by 30 per cent by 2012 as “very aggressive” as Korea embarks on its own mission to reduce energy consumption from 40 ministries and agencies by 15 per cent by 2013.
19 February 2010 | News
Queensland Police rolls out building access ID cards
Queensland Police Service is the first police force in Australia to issue employees with new electronic ID cards which integrate access to the premise and network resources, the Police Media and Public Affairs Branch told FutureGov.
9 February 2010 | News
Eat an elephant bite by bite, and digest accordingly
Business process is an incremental journey. Will government CIOs become government Chief Process Managers in the future?
9 February 2010 | News
Interpol rebuffs calls for web police
Calls for the creation of an internet police force to tackle unprecedented levels of cyber crime have been rebuffed by the director of IT at Interpol in an interview with FutureGov. Noboru Nakatani, Director for Information Systems and Technology for the global police network Interpol said that setting up a net police would be “reinventing the wheel” and the …
9 February 2010 | News
Should govts archive social media posts?
It is fashionable for government agencies to have a Facebook or Twitter account these days. But should tweets and status updates be backed up to leave a digital trail for transparency’s sake? Not all policymakers have made their minds up, as perspectives from the United States, Europe and Asia reveal in interviews with FutureGov.
9 February 2010 | News
Privacy concerns shape biggest ID project ever
The government of India hopes to have given half of the country’s residents an identification number within four years of the launch of the most ambitious project of its kind ever attempted. The Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) Director General Ram Sharma told FutureGov that the UID project, which is expected to roll out around October this year, will see 600 million residents registered with a unique identity number by 2014, if all goes according to plan.
9 February 2010 | News
How top US care network stays ahead
“Vigorously promoted” clinical guidelines combined with computerised decision support systems make Intermountain Healthcare a resounding success
9 February 2010 | News
Philippine govt ICT agency’s future in doubt
A week after a bill to create a fully-fledged Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in the Philippines was thrown out by Congress, the future of the current agency responsible for IT hangs in the balance. As President Gloria Arroyo’s administration makes way ahead of elections in May, the Commission on Information and …
9 February 2010 | News
Virtual reality technology saves lives
An accident in a nuclear or petro-chemical plant can result in the loss of many lives and millions of dollars. FutureGov spoke to Lee Jekwon, Technical Consultant, Invensys Operations Management about how virtual reality technologies can help reduce that risk.
9 February 2010 | News
Process-driven govt enjoys higher efficiencies
Citizens are demanding better and faster services from a more open government. Lars Bengtsson, ASEAN Managing Director, IDS Scheer revealed how a process-driven approach can improve efficiency to meet rising expectations from the public.
8 February 2010 | News
China clamps down "biggest hacker training base"
Police say that the web site, which was investigated after a few serious cyber attacks, had provided training to more than 180,000 individuals
8 February 2010 | News
Unified Application and Data Delivery
A model for creating a dynamic IT infrastructure
5 February 2010 | News
Tweeting officials warned about security risks
Tweeting government officials with Facebook pages and LinkedIn accounts beware. The volume of spam and malware sent via social networking sites increased by 70 per cent last year, with MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all falling victim to rising levels of malicious activity in 2009. Of them all, Facebook poses the biggest risk to security, according to a survey by cyber security firm Sophos.
4 February 2010 | News
Medicine ‘much more complicated’ than aviation
People often compare safety of medical practice with that of flying an airplane. Dr David Bates, Chief of General Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a leading researcher in Health IT, told FutureGov that while medicine as a whole could never reach the safety level of civil aviation, there are areas which IT can help bring medical safety to comparable levels of civil aviation.
2 February 2010 | News
World’s first CCTV Regulator appointed
The world’s first CCTV regulator is coming to Singapore to take the pulse of Asia’s security industry.
2 February 2010 | News
Corruption rises among HK govt officials
Corruption among government officials in Hong Kong rose considerably during the global financial crisis, although not by as much as was expected, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has told FutureGov. Corruption complaints made against government departments jumped by 11 per cent in 2009, but the number of pursuable cases rose by just four per cent, according to ICAC figures.
1 February 2010 | News
Healthcare group consolidates HR management
Parkway Health, a regional healthcare group originated out of Singapore, has announced that it will implement consolidated human resource management throughout its operations in Singapore.
27 January 2010 | News
Gov 2.0 championed at FutureGov Forum Singapore
Government modernisers from South Korea and Europe urged delegates at the FutureGov Forum Singapore today (Wednesday 27, 2010) to be bold in embracing social media and open information as ways to help solve society’s problems. Dr Jung-hee Song, Assistant Mayor for IT and Chief Information Officer, Seoul Metropolitan Government, pointed to …
26 January 2010 | News
Politicians ponder what’s next at FutureGov Forum
Elected politicians from Hong Kong and Singapore shared their perspectives on the future of governance and public service delivery at the FutureGov Forum in Singapore today. Zaqy Mohamad, Member of Parliament & Chairman for the Government Parliamentary Committee for Singapore’s Ministry of Information Communication and the Arts, told delegates that while his country has always …
25 January 2010 | News
Time running out for Philippine govt IT agency
A bill to create a Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in the Philippines, which has been pending in the national legislative for almost a decade, has just a few days to be passed before Congress is adjourned in time for general elections in May. Ray Roxas-Chua (pictured), Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT), told FutureGov that the bill faced “an uphill battle” to win the attention of Filipino lawmakers.
25 January 2010 | News
China’s largest wireless campus boosts productivity
Nanjing University of Posts and Communications has the largest and most resilient wireless coverage area of any higher education institution in China. FutureGov spoke to Dr Zong Ping, Director, Internet of Things and Senor Network College, to reveal why and how the network was implemented.
25 January 2010 | News
Asian schools automate attendance tracking
Gone are days when classes start with roll-calls. FutureGov reveals how schools in Hong Kong, Japan, India and Singapore have taken the load off teachers by deploying biometric or smart card technology to track students’ entering and leaving the campus.
25 January 2010 | News
Appeal for billion-dollar e-governance project in India
A development programme director for India’s poorest regions has called on foreign and domestic service-providers to help with a local government capacity building exercise for an area that covers 40 per cent of the country. Sudhir Krishna, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, told FutureGov that the 1000 crore rupees (US$217 million) project needed best-of-breed providers to ensure its success. Another project, known as e-Panchayat, will see around 4500 crore rupees (US$978 million) spent on improving service delivery at the village level.
20 January 2010 | News
Korea tops UN recession-time e-govt rankings
South Korea has led the world in how governments have used ICT to give citizens and businesses better access to public services during the economic downturn, according to a United Nations survey. Korea edged out the United States in the 2010 UN E-Government rankings, marking the first time an Asian country has topped the bi-annual table.
20 January 2010 | News
Networking blog boosts learning in Malaysian uni
Today’s students are avid users of technology. How best can teachers interact with them? Dr Supli Effendi Rahim, Lecturer, University Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), Malaysia told FutureGov how he successfully engaged students and sustained a learning community outside of the classroom using a networking blog platform.
19 January 2010 | News
OGCIO leads green IT in HK
Hong Kong’s Office of Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has been looking at how it can reduce the environmental impact of its public sector. Speaking exclusively to FutureGov, GCIO Jeremy Godfrey revealed the opportunities and challenges of green IT initiatives.
13 January 2010 | News
Asian govts eye gains from setting data free
More of the huge reserves of information locked away in the basements of government buildings should be made available to the public. So say government modernisers in Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia following the news that the Mayor of London has sparked an “information revolution” in the British capital by putting data online for public consumption for the first time, free of charge.
13 January 2010 | News
Denmark helps businesses with national e-invoicing system
A national electronic invoicing infrastructure has eased government-to-business and business-to-business transactions in Denmark. Catherine Lippert, Acting Deputy Head, Division for IT Infrastructure & Implementation, National IT & Telecom Agency (NITA) spoke to FutureGov about the drivers for the project and the agency’s plans to migrate the system into the cloud.
13 January 2010 | News
Korea e-govt helps cut emissions by 10%
The Korean government aims to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent by 2012. Young-il Kwon, Director, Green IT Department, National Information Society Agency (NIA) revealed to FutureGov how the public sector will lead the way by greening its IT system.
13 January 2010 | News
Vietnam e-govt scam case prompts procurement rethink
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has urged developing countries to embrace transparency and accountability in their procurement practices following the news that a former Vietnamese deputy minister faces corruption charges over the failed e-government venture Project 21.
5 January 2010 | News
How will ICT change the future of education?
Educators from Malaysia, Australia and India foresee a future in which digital books, hybrid mobile computers and touch-screen writing tablets will replace the text book, chalk and blackboard, according to a series of FutureGov interviews on how technology will change the future of education.
5 January 2010 | News
How to make ICT-enabled education succeed
ICT lies at the heart of modernising Asia’s education systems. However, technology alone will not be enough to bridge the digital divide, says Anita Dighe, Director, Directorate of Distance Learning, India. She went on to stress areas which governments need to focus on in order to deliver positive outcomes.
4 January 2010 | News
Agency walls too high for US Cyber Security Czar?
Howard Schmidt, the newly appointed United States Cyber Security Coordinator, faces the daunting challenge of ensuring that different government agencies cooperate on cyber security issues, a senior government official has told FutureGov.
4 January 2010 | News
Kyrgyz Republic uses software to aid economic reform
The government of the Kyrgyz Republic is implementing an integrated Treasury Management Information System (TMIS) and Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) as part of the former Soviet country’s push for economic reform.
4 January 2010 | News
Singapore and China forge public sector training alliance
China and Singapore have struck a deal that will see the two governments share their experiences in public administration and training. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed by China’s State Administration of Foreign Experts (SAFEA) and Singapore’s Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) at the …
29 December 2009 | News
HK PolyU enhances learning with Web 2.0 tools
Many educators today still see online learning as merely putting up content on the web for students to download, failing to take advantage of the potential of transforming teaching and learning. Professor Eric Tsui, Faculty of Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University told FutureGov how he leveraged web 2.0 tools to enhance the learning experience.
29 December 2009 | News
Queensland schools eye 30 per cent energy savings
Queensland’s Department of Education and Training aims to reduce the energy consumption of its state schools by 30 per cent by 2012. Cam Mackenzie, Principal Advisor for Environmental Sustainability, Queensland Department of Education and Training, told FutureGov how the department plans to achieve this and detailed the challenges it must overcome.
24 December 2009 | News
New York to deploy health information exchange platform
The Healthcare Information Xchange New York will deploy a software platform for information exchange, as part of the effort to connect healthcare organisations across the regional served by the organisation: 17 counties in northern New York State.
23 December 2009 | News
Why Singapore schools chose the public cloud
The head of Ministry of Education’s IT department has detailed reasons why the agency is forging ahead with plans to use Google Apps, in addition to a parallel move to standardise the Ministry’s operating environment, known as the ‘SOE (Schools)’ project. Speaking exclusively to FutureGov, Lim Teck Soon, IT Director of MOE, explained that …
22 December 2009 | News
Singapore to tender out e-system for GPs
The Singapore government is inviting vendors to submit proposals to ‘design, develop, supply, deliver, install, test, commission and support’ a clinical management system cum electronic medical record system for general practitioners.
22 December 2009 | News
Korea to launch e-gov services via IPTV
The government of South Korea has hatched a plan to make e-services available on the country’s IPTV platforms in the capital, Seoul, by early next year. Public information such as tender notices will be provided in real-time through IPTV channels from March 2010, with services such as civil petitions and tax payments to follow at a later stage.
18 December 2009 | News
Australian govt centralises ICT procurement
All information communications and technology products and services will be centrally procured by the end of this financial year, the Australian government has announced.
16 December 2009 | News
Sri Lanka introduces ICT to dairy farmers
Web and mobile technologies have been introduced such that Sri Lanka’s dairy farmers can achieve self-sufficiency in milk production.
11 December 2009 | News
Chinese prefecture pushes for rural services
Since the launch of the pilots of “Rural Information 121” （“農信121”）project, the eastern Chinese prefecture of Wenzhou has successfully implemented it in more than 11 townships.
11 December 2009 | News
Hong Kong Police act over peer-to-peer data leakage
The territory’s personal data privacy watchdog said he was satisfied with the measures taken to mitigate the consequences and prevent reoccurrence of the recent leakage cases where confidential police documents appeared on the internet through a peer-to-peer file shairng application
10 December 2009 | News
British Library unveils futuristic storage facility
The £26m building will keep literary records in a safe, high-density environment with automated storing and retrieval by robots governed by algorithm
10 December 2009 | News
Mobile phones close literacy gap in Pakistan
A literacy programme delivered through the mobile phone to disadvantaged female learners in Punjab showed improved literacy skills.
7 December 2009 | News
Aussie hospital group consolidates clinical systems
Mater Health Services, based out of the Australian State of Queensland, has integrated its disparate clinical information systems to form a single Electronic Patient Record across its seven hospitals.
1 December 2009 | News
Chinese city goes wireless
The city of Weifang has been chosen as a pilot site for a project to wirelessly connect citizens and government staff in China’s Shandong Province.If successful, the project to create a “wireless city” will be rolled out throughout Shandong, a coastal province in eastern China with a population of 94 million.
30 November 2009 | News
Slow progress by Philippine relief efforts
Recovery in The Philippines from the three consecutive typhoons has been slow. A month has passed but close to 382,000 victims still need rescuing from their flooded homes, according to the United Nations.
30 November 2009 | News
Crossing Hong Kong-Macau border made easy
Hong Kong residents will soon be able to enter Macau through electronic auto-clearance gates using their Hong Kong ID cards while those living in Macau will have the same privilege, according to a joint agreement by the two governments.
29 November 2009 | News
Malaysian hospital revamps data centre architecture
A practical approach to address the issues of down time and insufficient cooling which had been troubling Sunway Medical Centre’s IT department for a number of years
25 November 2009 | News
US government launches new Health IT blog
Dr David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health IT, has launched Health IT Buzz, to give readers more information about health information technology (HIT) and provide a forum for public engagement.
23 November 2009 | News
Singapore accelerates digital inclusion for seniors
The government will set up 100 hot spots with computers and Internet services for senior citizens to use for free.
19 November 2009 | News
Asians split on the future role of government
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and just as the global economy begins to recover from a painful downturn, Asian citizens have mixed feelings on whether government should have more control over industry and the distribution of wealth, according to a global BBC poll.
17 November 2009 | News
Rising costs push standardisation in NZ schools
Increasing IT costs have become a huge driver for standardising the IT operating environment across schools in New Zealand, a survey last week has shown.
17 November 2009 | News
Yahoo! CEO trumpets the power of blogging
Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz told an audience of Asian business leaders and government officials last week that specialist blogging is the “ultimate targeting” for reaching audiences young and old, and called the mobile phone the “new frontier” in communication for government.
12 November 2009 | News
Mobile apps and internet of things to take off in China
With the availability of mobile broadband infrastructure, mobile applications for governments will take off in China, Professor Qu Chengyi, Member of the Advisory Committee for State Informatisation, has told FutureGov.
10 November 2009 | News
Thin client wins hearts of Asian educators
The education sector was a major contributor to the growth of the thin client market in Asia Pacific’s public sector, a recent report has shown.
10 November 2009 | News
Govt calls IT industry’s green bluff
IT industry leaders are not doing enough to deal with electronic waste, governments, environmental activists, and community groups have claimed.
2 November 2009 | News
Mobiles aid emergency comms in Philippine school
While the devastating Ketsana typhoon disrupted classes in the Philippines for three full weeks, the best device which helped teachers and students stay connected was the mobile phone.
27 October 2009 | News
Security officials ponder use of social media
Government officials from Australia and Singapore have admitted that there is much to be done to understand how social media can be used to gather intelligence on security matters from the public, at a security event organised by FutureGov in Singapore last week.
26 October 2009 | News
Hong Kong invites private care providers to join EHR
The Hong Kong Government has invited private healthcare providers to join the Electronic Health Record Engagement Initiative.
26 October 2009 | News
How China’s Customs Retrieves Duty Losses and Controls Smuggling
How does a country keep track of all the goods crossing its borders? What is the best way to achieve tax harmony? Avoid smuggling? Heavyweight international trader China looks to its statistics department to achieve all this. China Custom’s SAS-based Enforcement Assessment System (EAS) has now been live for over two years, and the results are undeniably impressive.
26 October 2009 | News
E-learning tops discussion among education CIOs
Malaysia has ambitious plans to increase entry to higher education to 40 per cent by 2010, up from 30 per cent in 2005. With that in mind, the Malaysian government is working hard at improving the availability of online education, shared Dr Zubaidah Aman, Principal Assistant Director, Ministry of Higher Education at the FutureGov Summit in Bali.
23 October 2009 | News
Chinese city launches citizen feedback system
The Chinese municipal government of Dalian has launched a user evaluation and electronic monitoring system to gauge the popularity and usefulness of its citizen-facing web sites, and to respond faster to complaints from the public.
23 October 2009 | News
'Govt 2.0 should come with health warning'
Governments need to be more wary of the security risks posed by the consumerisation of the internet and the changing working habits of the public sector work force. So senior executives at global cyber security firms have warned civil servants in interviews with FutureGov.
21 October 2009 | News
Singapore forges new e-gov deal with Oman
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority has struck a new deal with the Information Technology Authority of Oman (ITA) to further develop the Sultanate’s e-government infrastructure.
14 October 2009 | News
IMPACT boss warns of long struggle with cyber crime
Datuk Mohd Noor Amin, the Chairman of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats, or IMPACT, has warned governments of the “long-term struggle” with cyber criminality and the need for international cooperation to fight it.
13 October 2009 | News
Standards up at Government Technology Awards 2009
Winners at the Government Technology Awards 2009 have received praised for the “very high quality” of entries, particularly from developing countries in the region. However, there is still room for improvement in the Green Government category, noted Laurence Millar, former Government Chief Information Officer of…
12 October 2009 | News
Asian govts mix carrot and stick approach to e-services
Asian governments revealed their differences on how to boost the uptake of e-services in a rambunctious discussion at last week’s FutureGov Summit in Bali, Indonesia.
5 October 2009 | News
Network to connect 4000 education institutes in Asia
A third generation information highway known as the Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN3) has been launched to connect more than 4000 research and education organisations in Asia Pacific, enabling large volumes of data to be shared.
5 October 2009 | News
Chinese province builds information highway
The eastern Chinese province of Anhui is investing more than RMB 80 billion (US$11.5 billion) to modernise its infrastructure, including a project known as ‘Digital Anhui’ that aims to make the internet more widely available and improve data transfer between urban and rural areas.
5 October 2009 | News
South Korea greens national data centres
South Korea has committed to reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of its national data centre by 18 per cent by 2013.
30 September 2009 | News
Kerala bridges digital gap with village IT centres
The Indian state of Kerala has opened its first community computing centre in an effort to close the digital divide, its state IT Director told FutureGov.
29 September 2009 | News
Chinese city builds public cloud to aid innovation
The northern Chinese city of Dongying is building a public cloud computing platform that it hopes will aid its transformation from an oil-rich manufacturing hub into a high-tech service-based economy.
28 September 2009 | News
US Congress pressed on the importance of healthcare IT
Health IT advocates and stakeholders congregated in the Capitol Hill last week, in an effort to “raise national attention on the importance of health IT in healthcare reform”.
23 September 2009 | News
Bangaloreans get govt services home delivered
The Indian city of Bangalore, the country’s third most populous city, has hatched plans to launch a series of mobile e-service centres to bring government services closer to citizens.
22 September 2009 | News
Chinese rural ICT project hits US$18 million mark
A two-year project to bridge the urban-rural digital divide in Yunnan Province in southern China has seen RMB 124 million (US$18 million) spent so far in the creation of the ‘Yunnan Digital Village’, an integrated information network that will serve as a ‘living dictionary’ for the area’s 44 million residents.
22 September 2009 | News
Winning the war against cyber crime
What are governments doing to ensure that critical online operations remain operational when under attack from cyber criminals? FutureGov asked senior civil servants in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and the Philippines to reveal how they are preparing their defences against hackers.
20 September 2009 | News
China extends rural land registration pilot
After the successful completion of the first phase of the pilot GIS-based land registration project covering two villager groups, China has signed a contract for a second phase, involving two to three counties in the eastern Anhui province.
18 September 2009 | News
One-stop cloud source launched for US federal agencies
The US government has launched Apps.gov, a dedicated web site for federal agencies to ‘quickly browse and purchase cloud-based IT services for productivity, collaboration and efficiency’.
15 September 2009 | News
Chinese city embraces paperless culture
The Office of Chengdu Environmental Protection Agency in Sichuan Province in China is pushing for public sector agencies to embrace paperless office culture. The idea is to improve operational efficiencies and reduce the government’s impact on the environment.
15 September 2009 | News
HK hospital rolls out bedside terminals
Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital has installed Patient Infotainment Terminals in every inpatient area, as part of the extension programme to offer a ‘brand new hospital experience’ for patients.
14 September 2009 | News
Singapore juggles IT centralisation with agency needs
Public sector agencies in Singapore do not have to compromise their unique IT requirements after the consolidation of national IT infrastructure, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore has assured FutureGov.
14 September 2009 | News
Can Cambodia play e-government leapfrog?
The government of Cambodia’s long awaited e-government guidelines have provided agencies with a roadmap for how to take their services online as the Kingdom looks to get up to speed with the global ICT sector. There is an opportunity for Cambodia to ‘leapfrog’ other developing countries and avoid past mistakes, Madhav Ragam, Director, Government & Education, Healthcare & Life Sciences at IBM’s Growth Markets Unit told FutureGov.
8 September 2009 | News
Malaysia rethinks green technology strategy
Malaysia’s new inter-ministerial green technology council has promised to galvanise efforts to form an integrated national green strategy.
8 September 2009 | News
Singapore's one patient one record plans on track
Singapore’s vision to be among the first in the world to implement an electronic health record scheme is on track for its November 2010 rollout and aims to revolutionise the way healthcare is offered and how providers work within the system, according to Dr Sarah Muttitt, CIO of Ministry of Health Holdings (MOHH), the holding company of the city-state’s public healthcare assets.
8 September 2009 | News
US cyber security system sparks privacy row
A new version of a computer intrusion detection system being developed by the United States Department of Homeland Security has raised concerns from advocacy groups over privacy and the involvement of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the development of the software. The new system, known as Einstein 3, can reportedly read email as well as its original function, to detect malicious software.
3 September 2009 | News
Taiwan fake govt web site saga remedied in one hour
The sabotage of a Taiwan government web site by hackers last month was dealt with by the authorities in just one hour, and the perpetrators have now been caught, according to Liu Tian-cai, Administrative Court Commissioner for the Central Personnel Administration (CPU), the agency that came under attack.
1 September 2009 | News
Teachers block the path to modernisation
India’s ambitious National Mission on Education through ICT may be undermined by teachers’ reluctance to use technology in the classroom.
1 September 2009 | News
E-voting in the Philippines on trial
There is not enough time to reliably and effectively test the electronic voting machines that will be used in next year’s general elections in the Philippines. So says Dr Pablo Manalastas, IT consultant for the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), a policy think tank that has been pushing for the source code of the voting machines to be released ahead of the polls on May 10th next year.
25 August 2009 | News
HK PolyU puts library in Second Life
Students of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) have been walking, flying and even teleporting from section to section within the new university library. The virtual library, built on the Second Life platform, is the first of its kind in Asia.
25 August 2009 | News
The great debate: is e-learning effective?
Is e-learning really effective or is it a buzzword that promises much but deliver less? Trying to learn a language online has been likened to learning how to swim without entering the water. But more learning is likely to be delivered electronically in the future. Two key factors are speed and scale, says Dr Tay Chor Ter, CEO of regional e-learning company Inchone.
25 August 2009 | News
South Korea to launch smart offices
South Korea’s civil servants will be able to work in smart working centres in their own neighbourhood instead of commuting to their offices, according to Dr Kim Seang-Tae, President of the National Information Agency (NIA).
17 August 2009 | News
Blue sky thinking for mobile weather application
Scaleability was the key challenge when Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) designed the country’s first mobile weather service.
12 August 2009 | News
Singapore govt launches blog for youth
The government of Singapore has launched a web site, www.p65.sg, to serve as a platform for Singaporeans born after the city-state’s independence in 1965 to write about “anything under the sun”, even race and religion.
12 August 2009 | News
Speculation builds on cost of NZ e-health system
Vendors in New Zealand are rushing to estimate the cost of the country’s national Electronic Health Record system and how it should be built. A request for information was issued last year, to which 30 suppliers have responded.
12 August 2009 | News
Korea forms commission to boost e-gov exports
South Korea’s Ministry of Public Administration and Security is organising an International Information and Communication Technology Collaboration Commission (ICTCC) to help the country export its e-government model.
12 August 2009 | News
Indian schools invest in ICT for disabled students
Secondary schools in India are to be granted more information and communications technology (ICT) to help teach disabled children. Screen readers and Braille printers are among the technologies to given to school around the country.
12 August 2009 | News
How forecasting technology can fight tax fraud
Taxation fraud is a key challenge faced by Asia Pacific’s public sector. Governments can reduce this monetary leak using forecasting technologies, CEO of SAS Jim Goodnight told FutureGov.
12 August 2009 | News
Thai schools make slow progress in IT
Educators in Thailand have reported sluggish progress in the use of technology in education due to the lack of government initiatives and support.
11 August 2009 | News
Taiwanese hackers create fake govt web site
Hackers in Taiwan have exploited the turmoil caused by last week’s typhoons by creating a fake home page for the web site of the Central Personnel Administration (CPA), the government department responsible for advising citizens on whether or not conditions are safe enough to go to work or school.
11 August 2009 | News
US cybersecurity guidelines come under fire
A new set of guidelines on cybersecurity released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States has fallen short of the protection needed for government systems, a cybersecurity analysis group has warned.
11 August 2009 | News
User resistance to German e-health cards
Germany’s electronic health card rollout, aimed at improving communications and data exchange within the country’s healthcare sector, has been delayed due to physician resistance.
11 August 2009 | News
Chinese city plans wireless comms network
The government of Wuhan in central China has launched a project to wirelessly connect government officials and the public in the district of Jianghan. Known as ‘Wireless Jianghan’, the project will see each government department encouraged to use a ‘Wireless Home Affairs’ network, according to the Party Secretary of Jianghan District, Zhang Ping.
5 August 2009 | News
Pakistani province to connect govt agencies
The government of Punjab in Pakistan plans to be set up an inter-agency computer network to facilitate information sharing by next year.
4 August 2009 | News
E-register portal debuts for overseas Singaporeans
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a portal for its e-register services to make the electronic registration process faster and more convenient for Singaporeans abroad who might need assistance in times of emergency.
4 August 2009 | News
Thailand plans e-patent system
Thailand’s Intellectual Property Department is planning to develop an e-Patent system that will enable citizens and companies to apply for patent protection or access information on intellectual property rights via the web.
4 August 2009 | News
Gun ad posted on Public Security site in China
An advertisement selling a gun has caused embarrassment in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan after it was posted on a Public Security Bureau web site.
4 August 2009 | News
Brunei counts on ICT to improve govt services
The government of Brunei has announced plans to leverage ICT to improve service delivery to citizens.
4 August 2009 | News
India pushes to close rural digital divide
The government of India has plans to make IT accessible to the masses in remote villages.
4 August 2009 | News
Chinese city launches citizen feedback portal
Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, has launched an interactive forum on its government web site (chengdu.gov.cn/xinxiang) and a “Mayor-mail” hotline to give citizens the opportunity to give feedback and make suggestions regarding public services.
3 August 2009 | News
Chinese cities to integrate medical insurance systems
Residents of Guangzhou & Foshan, two mega municipalities in China’s Pearl Delta region, will be able to seek medical treatment in other cities with the same social security coverage. This was announced by Zheng Yuhua, Deputy Director of the Labour and Social Security Bureau of Guangzhou Municipality, who said the seamless consolidation of the two cities’ medical insurance systems will be achieved by next year.
3 August 2009 | News
US govt IT departments still confused by cloud computing
Federal officials in the United States think that cloud computing will play a big role in future government IT initiatives. But they are still confused about what cloud computing is and want security assurances before adopting it on a large scale, a survey of federal IT managers has found.
2 August 2009 | News
China’s hospital reaches out through mobile platform
The 181st Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army will provide health information via a mobile platform.
29 July 2009 | News
Philippine president pushes for govt IT dept
Gloria Arroyo, President of the Philippines, has made an appeal to local lawmakers to pass a bill to establish a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), a bill that has been pending in the national legislature for five years.
29 July 2009 | News
UAE travelers use ID cards at passport control
The United Arab Emirates has introduced a scheme where identity cards can be used to go through passport control at entry and exit points across the country to enable travelers to pass quickly through immigration, an Abu Dhabi Police official has said.
29 July 2009 | News
HK expands cyber centre network
A pilot scheme to roll out District-Based Cyber Centres (DCCs) is to be expanded in Hong Kong as part of the government’s Digital 21 Strategy, which aims to give needy residents throughout the territory access to information and communications technology (ICT).
28 July 2009 | News
UK govt launches Twitter guide for civil servants
The UK government is developing a strategy for civil servants to use the microblogging service Twitter in the hope of giving government an “informal, human voice” with which to communicate with the public.
28 July 2009 | News
Indian knowledge-sharing pool exported
The success of the Indian government’s pilot public-private sector knowledge-sharing pool has spurred similar initiatives in Indonesia, Thailand and Bhutan.
28 July 2009 | News
Calls for e-health to better serve rural Australia
The Australian government must focus on e-health initiatives to better serve rural areas, the Australian Medical Association has urged.
28 July 2009 | News
Bangladeshi Minister pushes importance of IT
AMA Muhith, the Finance Minister of Bangladesh, has highlighted the role of ICT in creating jobs, skilling the workforce and curbing corruption, and the danger of falling behind other countries as they move towards a knowledge-base economy.
27 July 2009 | News
China and UK cooperate on network security
The Chinese State Council Information Office and the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have agreed to combine their efforts to safeguard national network security and collaborate on information sharing and intelligence gathering.
27 July 2009 | News
Indian territory to launch citizen-friendly portal
The administration of the Indian state of Chandigarh is developing a State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) that will act as front-end interface to various e-governance initiatives and services across all departments of the Union Territory (UT) Administration.
27 July 2009 | News
Philippines launches study on internet use
The World Bank is funding a comprehensive study that will measure PC and internet penetration in the Philippines in partnership with the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).
24 July 2009 | News
Vietnam government officials not keen on email
More than half of government officials in Vietnam at all levels have been provided with email addresses for work, but 19 per cent of them have never used it, a senior official of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) has admitted.
23 July 2009 | News
Debate swirls over medical records language in Taiwan
A debate about the language used for medical records has heated up in Taiwanese society. Ninety-eight per cent of Taiwan’s population is of Han Chinese ethnicity. However, most western medicine doctors in Taiwan keep medical records in…
23 July 2009 | News
US govt admits to being a web 2.0 laggard
Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra has admitted that the United States government is lagging far behind its citizens in its use of the internet to communicate, collaborate and solve problems using social networking platforms.
21 July 2009 | News
Hong Kong Land Registry revamps E-Memorial Form
Hong Kong’s Land Registry has launched an enhanced version of its e-Memorial Form, which is now available to be downloaded free-of-charge from the registry’s web site (www.landreg.gov.hk).
21 July 2009 | News
Indian state hatches e-goverance plans
The Indian state government of Himachal Pradesh has announced that it will set up 3366 Lok Mitra Kendras (internet kiosks) as part of a plan to better manage service delivery and distribution to ordinary citizens.
21 July 2009 | News
South Australia commissions student information system
The South Australian Government has signed a A$20.4 million (US$17 million) deal with SunGard Higher Education to build a new student information system for the state’s entire Technical and Further Education (TAFE) network.
21 July 2009 | News
India introduces register to protect overseas students
The Indian government is to put in place a mechanism for registering students going overseas to be educated as part of the ‘e-governance in emigration’ project implemented by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.
20 July 2009 | News
India plots central govt recruitment exchange
India’s central government is embarking on a project to list all information on job opportunities in government departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) on the web by connecting major employment exchanges across the country.
20 July 2009 | News
Vietnam deputy PM: consensus key to e-govt
Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has said that high levels of determination and agreement among government agencies are key to making e-government a reality in the fast-growing Southeast Asian country.
20 July 2009 | News
Japanese netizens fret about internet safety
Eighty per cent of Japanese internet users feel are worried about their privacy and feel insecure when using the web, according to the results of a government survey.
20 July 2009 | News
Cloud could boost inter-agency collaboration: US GCIO
Vivek Kundra, the United States Federal Chief Information Officer, has said that cloud computing could enable governments to better share information and boost collaboration among federal, state and local government agencies.
13 July 2009 | News
New Zealand replaces failed govt shared network
New Zealand’s government has planned a six month project to shift agencies from the failed Government Shared Network (GSN) to a new platform called one.govt (Open Network Environment).
13 July 2009 | News
Singapore heritage board sees growth for revamped portal
Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB) has reported record numbers of visitors to its portal yesterday.sg, which was re-launched in 2008 to boost its appeal among young Singaporeans.
13 July 2009 | News
Indian city govt provides vaccination text alerts
The Chennai Corporation, a civic body that governs the city of Chennai, will send text messages to women who have registered to use healthcare facilities, informing them of the vaccination schedule for their babies.
13 July 2009 | News
Vietnam seeks India's help in IT development
Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communication Le Doan Hop has sought India’s assistance in building Vietnam’s e-government and developing concentrated Information Technology (IT) industrial zones.
13 July 2009 | News
Japan plots one-stop public services portal
Japan plans to create an online portal that will give citizens ”one-stop” access to a wide range of public services by 2013, the government’s IT Strategic Headquarters has announced.
13 July 2009 | News
Bahrain to enable bill payments by mobile phone
Bahrain residents will soon be able to pay their electricity and water bills using their mobile phones, the latest of a series of eGovernment initiatives on the island state.
13 July 2009 | News
Schools in Brunei enter the cloud
Students and teachers in Brunei will be given cloud-based email accounts by the end of this month, opening up opportunities for collaborative learning in the future.
13 July 2009 | News
India announces budget for education IT
India will invest 9 billion Indian rupees (US$189 million) on education through information and communication technology (ICT) this fiscal year, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has announced.
13 July 2009 | News
US and Korean govt web sites attacked
Cyber attacks assumed to be launched from North Korea disrupted United States and South Korean government and key private sector websites last week.
11 July 2009 | News
Hong Kong approves budget for first phase of EHR
The Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s parliament, has approved the funding of HK$720 million (US$ 93 million) for the first phase of the EHR project.
7 July 2009 | News
India to help African state with e-government project
The government of India is set to help the African Kingdom of Lesotho set up a statewide e-network to facilitate services such as tele-education, tele-medicine and net connectivity for video conferencing among the heads of state.
7 July 2009 | News
Sri Lanka launches multi-lingual govt call centre
The Sri Lankan government has launched a multi-lingual call centre to make it faster and easier for a broad cross section of Sri Lankan citizens to access government services.
7 July 2009 | News
India’s traffic dept embarks on e-records drive
India’s Transport Department has launched an initiative to computerise all of its records at a state and local level to prepare a national register for all vehicles and licences.
7 July 2009 | News
Vietnam hospital phone lines open, walk-ins preferred
The Huu Nghi hospitals in Ha Noi and Cho Ray, and Thong Nhat hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City are now allowing insured patients to make appointments by telephone, under a programme launched by the Ministry of Health to improve service for patients covered by health insurance.
7 July 2009 | News
Poor progress for Britain’s green govt strategy
A recent study by an environmental non-governmental organisation has highlighted the inadequacies of Britain’s green government strategy initiated a year ago.
6 July 2009 | News
Green mandate for China's civil servants
Government workers in China must start going green in order to keep their jobs. So says He Jiankun, Deputy Head, Committee of Experts, at the National Climate Change Coordination Committee.
6 July 2009 | News
UK country revamps info-management system
The Welsh Assembly Government has unveiled a major software and services overhaul to replace traditional methods of information management.
6 July 2009 | News
Poll automation back on in the Philippines
The Philippines’ Commission on Elections (Comelec) has announced that the winning bidders in the country’s poll automation project have settled their dispute and will go ahead with computerising next year’s elections.
30 June 2009 | News
Could the mobile phone replace the blackboard?
The mobile phone could replace the blackboard in classrooms across Asia Pacific before long, a report on digital trends in the region has predicted.
30 June 2009 | News
Singapore hospitals to replace legacy archiving systems
Singapore’s largest healthcare group has entered into a 10-year partnership with Microsoft to establish an integrated radiology management system. The long term goal is to develop an enterprise-wide clinical imaging solution.
30 June 2009 | News
Chinese anti-corruption website deluged
A web site launched by the Chinese government to enable citizens to blow the whistle on corrupt officials has crashed due to heavy site traffic.
30 June 2009 | News
NSW Police installs image management system
The police force of New South Wales (NSW) has implemented Australia’s first large scale digital imagery management system to save law enforcers time.
30 June 2009 | News
Indian e-file system praised for curbing fraud
Indian government officials in Uttar Pradesh (UP) have praised a web-based file tracking system known as e-patravali pranali for helping government departments ensure the speedy disposal of files, and reduce paperwork and corruption.
30 June 2009 | News
Dubai promotes ICT in push to save energy
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has launched a nationwide educational campaign to promote the use of modern information and communications technology and e-payment services that save time and energy.
30 June 2009 | News
Malaysian state wirelessly connects public services
The Malaysian state government of Terengganu has announced the completion of phase one of the Broadband Wireless Network Project (BWNP), which is part of the state’s e-government initiative, T-eG (Terengganu e-government).
23 June 2009 | News
Thailand plans ICT community centre roll-out
Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) has announced plans to build community ICT centres in all districts across the country, pending budget approval of 400 million baht (US$11.7 million) from central government.
23 June 2009 | News
China launches anti-corruption hotline
Whistle-blowers nationwide can dial the same number to report possible corruption cases. China has rolled numerous phone numbers available to informers of corruption cases into a single number: 12309, in an attempt to make it easier and more appealing to the public …
23 June 2009 | News
Singapore Minister: govts should embrace culture of transparency
Many countries in Asia resist adopting better governance measures because it is the inefficiency and lack of transparency when issuing government licenses and permits that enable them to reap personal gains, a top Singaporean Minister has declared.
23 June 2009 | News
Govt lags private sector SaaS adoption in Asia
While Asia Pacific’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market is expected to reach a high of US$298 million in 2009, little of this growth is expected to come from the government sector.
23 June 2009 | News
Compulsory ICT education for Punjabi students
The Indian state government of Punjab will make computer education a compulsory subject come this October with a view to make all 1.35 million students digitally literate by next year.
23 June 2009 | News
Supply chain management key to green govt: analyst
Supply-chain management software has a key role to play in helping the public sector meet its green mandate - but the products available are far from mature, according to analyst firm Ovum.
23 June 2009 | News
New South Wales undergoes radical govt restructure
The government of New South Wales (NSW) government has announced its biggest structural reform in more than 30 years, merging 160 agencies into 13 super departments.
23 June 2009 | News
Tracking network to connect Indian police stations
Thousands of police stations in India are to be linked through a tracking network in a bid to boost connectivity between stations and enhance crime-fighting capabilities.
23 June 2009 | News
Tele-medicine application launches in rural India
The Indian government has launched a tele-medicine tool it hopes will enhance healthcare outreach to rural parts of India.
16 June 2009 | News
E-elections get green light in Philippines
The Philippines is pushing ahead with plans to hold its first automated elections next year.
16 June 2009 | News
E-govt is low on UN Development Agenda
While countries such as Singapore and Canada are recognised leaders in e-government, other United Nations (UN) member countries are still backward in their embrace of e-government practices, a UN representative has told FutureGov.
16 June 2009 | News
Plan unveiled for a digital Bangladesh
Bangladeshi Finance Minister AMA Muhith has unveiled a nationwide information and communication technology (ICT) strategy aimed at making technology accessible to all.
15 June 2009 | News
Obama electioneer worried about waning social media appeal
Scott Goodstein, the brains behind United States President Barack Obama’s online election campaign, told delegates at a conference last week (Wednesday 10 June 2009) that the effectiveness of social media platforms as a communication tool for government is likely to wane – and fast – in the coming months.
15 June 2009 | News
Mobile workforce poses cybersecurity threat: expert
Governments need to develop strategies to bolster cyber security as their workforces become more mobile, an information security expert has urged.
15 June 2009 | News
Western Australia upgrades patient management system
The Western Australian Department of Health is looking to upgrade its patient management system as part of the state’s eHealth reform program.
15 June 2009 | News
Govts buck trend for data storage growth decline
Enterprise disk storage revenue fell 18.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year as a willingness to pay to store information has fallen, a global study by IDC Research has found. However government storage spend is still growing, claims tech giant IBM.
15 June 2009 | News
Australian e-project abandoned
The Australian federal government has ignored a funding request and has withdrawn its involvement in a national online conveyancing system.
15 June 2009 | News
San Francisco govt contact centre now on Twitter
San Francisco residents can now reach the government customer service centre through Twitter, a free social messaging tool.
15 June 2009 | News
Tight govt IT budgets boost cloud appeal: Google
A senior Google executive has said that tight public sector information technology (IT) budgets are provoking interest in cloud computing, but adoption of the media giant’s services in Asia has so far been limited to the education sector.
12 June 2009 | News
Former US GCIO calls for better data management
The Obama administration’s push to make government data more easily accessible is driving the need for standardised data classification and information management, a former Government Chief Information Officer has said.
11 June 2009 | News
CIO of world’s biggest hospital to blog for FutureGov
Jialin Liu, Director, Centre of Medical Informatics at the 5000-bed West China Hospital, will share his insights with readers of FutureGov.
9 June 2009 | News
India sets up mini data centres for e-services
The Indian state government of Gujarat has set up mini data centres (MDCs) in three cities in a bid to reduce costs for e-governance initiatives, increase data security and streamline operational maintenance.
9 June 2009 | News
Singapore college claims zero IT project failures
Singapore’s Republic Polytechnic (RP) estimates to have saved S$7 million (US$4.8 million) a year from productivity gains due to the smart use of technology. The polytechnic also claims to have a record of zero IT (information technology) project failures in the seven years the institute has been running.
9 June 2009 | News
CIO moots cloud for health records storage
Cloud computing could be a solution for the electronic storage and exchange of trillions of patient health records, the Chief Information Officer of the American Indian Health Service (IHS) has suggested.
9 June 2009 | News
Taiwan President proposes WiMAX ambulance project
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has said that he looks forward to the introduction of WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology in ambulance service systems to upgrade the quality and efficiency of first aid operations in the country.
8 June 2009 | News
Long road ahead for India's e-services
The Indian government’s rollout of web-connected Common Service Centers (CSC) has been completed in the states of Jharkhand, Haryana and Sikkim, with more than 40,000 kiosks operational.
8 June 2009 | News
World’s first tuition-free online university opens
The United Nations (UN) has launched the world’s first tuition-free, online university.
8 June 2009 | News
Asian govts to spend more on software in downturn
Governments in Asia Pacific will continue to spend on software despite the economic downturn, an IDC study has shown.
4 June 2009 | News
First dedicated digital library opens in Korea
The world’s first purposed-built digital library with the largest dedicated space for users to access online content opened this week.
4 June 2009 | News
First stage of Sweden’s e-health scheme deployed
‘National Patient Overview’ gives 500 care providers in the region of Örebro authorised access to consolidated patient information
4 June 2009 | News
Tasmania plots single patient record system
The Australian state of Tasmania has issued a tender for a single patient imaging record system that will enable hospital staff across the state to access imaging services regardless of what hospital they were recorded in.
2 June 2009 | News
Seattle CTO to speak at Hong Kong govt event
Bill Schrier, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Seattle, Bob Correll, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Australia’s Immigration and Citizenship Department, and Lee Hsang-Chen, the Director of Information Systems for Taiwan’s National Police Agency are the latest additions to the speaker line-up for the Government Information Forum (GIF) in Hong Kong this summer.
2 June 2009 | News
Healthcare IT budgets will continue to grow: analyst
Despite the economic downturn, healthcare organisations are increasing the amount they spend on information technology (IT) solutions and services, according to figures from Frost & Sullivan.
2 June 2009 | News
US Cyber Czar role plagued by political wrangling
The announcement of the US Government’s first Cyber Czar has been delayed amid speculation that the newly created role has become embroiled in a political row.
2 June 2009 | News
Is Singapore's e-govt model exportable?
Singapore wants to sell its e-government model to the world. But do other countries want or need what Singapore is offering? FutureGov asked government information officers in India, China, South Korea and the Philippines…
2 June 2009 | News
Education: tech can deliver higher quality assessment
Singapore’s key education challenge is not to move away from the assessment system but to improve it – and technology can help. So says David Hogan, Dean of Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education (NIE).
2 June 2009 | News
Study: web-based learning vs face-to-face
A study of Malaysian tertiary students using web-based learning technologies showed only a slight improvement in performance over conventional face-to-face teaching methods.
1 June 2009 | News
Qatar to set up government agency network
Qatar has launched a project to interlink government agencies over a secure communications platform in a bid to improve data sharing and enhanced security for government e-services.
1 June 2009 | News
Indian govt info now a phone call away
The Indian authorities are set to make information from central and state governments available to all citizens over the telephone, enabling the poor and uneducated to file Right to Information (RTI) queries.
29 May 2009 | News
ECM to grow despite economic gloom
The value of the enterprise content management (ECM) solutions market in Asia Pacific will grow by between four and seven per cent over the next three years, regardless of the economic outlook, an IT analyst has predicted.
28 May 2009 | News
US Cyber Czar frontrunners revealed
Melissa Hathaway, Rod Beckstrom and Paul Kurtz are the frontrunners in the race to be the US government’s first ‘Cyber Czar’. So tips Don Adams, the Palo Alto-based Chief Technology Officer, Worldwide, Public Sector for tech giant Tibco.
27 May 2009 | News
GCIO to deliver keynote at Government Information Forum 09
Hong Kong’s Government Chief Information Officer Jeremy Godfrey is delivering the keynote presentation at this year’s Government Information Forum in Hong Kong.
26 May 2009 | News
Academic: 80 per cent of e-govt projects fail
The Head of Online Services at the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development has revealed the government’s plans to increase e-services from six to 35 per cent of business transactions by 2012. However, 60 to 80 per cent of e-government projects around the world fail, Dr Nabeel Al Qirim, Associate Professor, College of Information Technology, UAE University, warned in an interview with FutureGov.
26 May 2009 | News
US hospital webcasts brain surgery to promote services
A hospital in the United States has webcast an operation to remove a brain cancer as part of a promotional campaign to educate patients, entice donors, and recruit top doctors.
26 May 2009 | News
Swine flu calls for tougher IT security for home workers
With the threat of a global swine flu pandemic looming, IT consolidation and virtualization initiatives may be the solution to enable workers to work from home, an IT infrastructure and security vendor has suggested.
26 May 2009 | News
Singapore uses new media in recruitment drive
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has seen recruitment numbers for its police, civil defence and prison functions rise significantly this year, thanks in part to MHA’s use of new media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to appeal to young Singaporean job-seekers.
26 May 2009 | News
Identity card piloted in southern India
The southern Indian state Karnataka has been chosen as the pilot location to implement the central government’s National Unique Identity (UID) project.
26 May 2009 | News
Vietnam pushes IT training for teachers
Vietnam’s commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City hopes to speed up the modernisation of its schools by introducing vendor-supported IT training programmes for teachers.
26 May 2009 | News
Bahrain e-government services now on mobiles
The government of Bahrain is the latest country to introduce e-government services that can be accessed through mobile phones.
26 May 2009 | News
Police stations in Indian state to go hi-tech
In a bid to make police stations more transparent and efficient, the Gujarat government is set to embrace a new computerised system—the Home Department Integrated Information Total Solution (HD-IITS)—in all police stations in the state.
25 May 2009 | News
Thailand hatches plan for private cloud
The government of Thailand is planning to set up a cloud computing platform as part of efforts to improve the development and implementation of e-government applications.
19 May 2009 | News
Stimulus packages to add to rising data burden
Government efforts to stimulate their economies will lead to a dramatic increase in the volume of digital information created, a report by EMC and IDC has predicted.
19 May 2009 | News
Indonesian transparency drive opens doors for vendors
The Indonesian government’s efforts to become more transparent and efficient by embracing e-government initiatives are opening opportunities for IT vendors, says a senior executive at the Indian information technology firm Tata Consultancy Services.
18 May 2009 | News
Public sector to boost IT spend in the Philippines
The economic gloom in the Philippines is doing little to dampen the uptake of IT services thanks to a number of public sector initiatives, according to a report from research firm Ovum.
18 May 2009 | News
South Korea to diversify e-gov web site access
Korea’s e-government services will be made available for those logging on from FireFox or Safari, web browsers that are gaining more popularity worldwide as an alternative to Internet Explorer.
18 May 2009 | News
UK smart meter project expected to bust budget
The UK Government has underestimated the cost of a nationwide rollout of smart electricity and gas meters by as much as £6.4 billion (US$9.7 billion), according to the accounting firm Ernst & Young.
18 May 2009 | News
Japan govt plots private cloud
Japan’s government is planning to build a private cloud environment that could eventually host all Japanese government software.
18 May 2009 | News
Philippines govt to secure online transactions
Two government agencies in the Philippines have endorsed a proposed executive order to set up a system that will enable government offices to keep online transactions secure using “digital signatures”.
15 May 2009 | News
Singapore shapes Qatar's e-govt model
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority is assisting ictQATAR in implementing the Qatar Services Infrastructure (QSi) project, a fast developing e-government initiative.
15 May 2009 | News
Malaysia govt to upgrade federal network
The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), a key government agency responsible for ‘modernising and reforming’ the public sector, is upgrading the Putrajaya Campus Network (PCN).
14 May 2009 | News
South Korea Commits to Green Investment
The Green Growth Commission announced yesterday (13 May) that the South Korean government will commit to spending 12.6 trillion won (US$10 billion) to develop environmental technology in the next five years.
14 May 2009 | News
Singapore launches internet portal for elderly
In an initiative to make ICT more accessible to senior citizens, a local council in Singapore created a web site to provide the elderly with social platforms, games and information…
14 May 2009 | News
Thailand: successful e-health system lauded
Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital has digitised as many aspects of hospital work as it can—enabling it to more than double the number of patients it can handle each day, increase safety and cut its patients’ bills.
12 May 2009 | News
Singapore Announces Government IT Priorities For 2009
More than US$1.18 billion of new IT initiatives were announced this morning (12 May) at a dedicated IT briefing organized by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
12 May 2009 | News
Obama: healthcare cost-cuts can amount to US$3 tril
US President Barack Obama has won a big victory in his battle to reform the American healthcare system. Some former opponents of reform are now offering their support.
12 May 2009 | News
Malaysia: ICT education for a “creative society”
Malaysia Higher Education Ministry is studying how to develop a creative and innovative Malaysian society through human capital development.
11 May 2009 | News
India state offers rebate on online applications
A state in Northern India, Haryana, has decided to extend rebate to those using the online medium to fill requests for various kinds of processing to be done at estate offices. This rebate will encourage applicants to use the web, saving time for both applicants and the government agency.
11 May 2009 | News
India calls for local govt participation
New ideas, transparency and accountability are still being resisted at various levels in the government, according to the National Knowledge Commission (NKC)—a body set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 to prepare a road map for transforming India into a knowledge society.
11 May 2009 | News
The Philippines in dire need of telemedicine
To create a national teleheath system, Congressman Joseph Emilio A. Abaya stressed the need for the country to have a law pushing for a telemedicine bill that will facilitate collaboration between public and private institutions, and government and non-government offices.
11 May 2009 | News
Sydney power outage kills e-health systems
Doctors in hospitals within Sydney’s west had to temporarily turn back to pen and paper on 2 May when their electronic health record systems went offline. Around 90 hospitals in the greater western, greater southern and Sydney west areas were affected by the outage, losing services such as email and intranet.
8 May 2009 | News
Chinese Municipal Government undergoes radical restructuring
“In principle, there will be only one department in charge of a specific policy area after the reform”
8 May 2009 | News
Keep vigilant in a complex threat environment
With increasingly sophisticated online infrastructure, Asia’s governments are facing lots of real threats that deserve their vigilance.
8 May 2009 | News
New privacy push for HK’s public hospitals
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority and the Office of Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) have jointly launched a campaign to enhance the awareness of patient data privacy among all the staff members of the territory’s public hospitals and clinics.
6 May 2009 | News
South Korean govt to open 24-hour swine flu crisis centre
Following the World Health Organisation’s upgrade of the pandemic alert for swine flu by one level to Phase 5—the second-highest on its threat scale—South Korea is taking further steps to combat the virus by opening a 24-hour swine flu crisis centre.
6 May 2009 | News
Japan urges cuts in local govts' public works costs
In the ongoing tussle between central and local government in Japan, a panel in charge of expediting the decentralisation of power has called for local entities to be freed from the burden of maintenance expenses for public work done under the orders of central government.
6 May 2009 | News
Asian govts must urgently adapt to climate change: ADB
Governments in Asia Pacific must urgently develop strategies to adapt to climate change or face soaring economic costs in the future, a seminar audience heard at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) this week.
5 May 2009 | News
Hong Kong govt tackles perceived rise in corruption
A poor economy is likely to lead to a rise in corruption in both the public and private sector, a survey by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has revealed.
5 May 2009 | News
Bhutan government goes online
The Bhutanese government has decided to bring public administration online. Department of information and technology (DIT) director Tenzin Chhoeda said that the online system will link every police station in the country with the ministry of home and cultural affairs.
5 May 2009 | News
Japan offers US$100bn for Asian economies
Japan has offered US$100 billion in financial assistance to Asian countries hit by the global financial crisis in a move that rubber stamps its economic leadership in the region in spite of its own severe recession.
5 May 2009 | News
Asian silver surfers surge online
Internet use among Asia’s older generations rose by 35 per cent last year, according to data from online measurement company Comscore.
4 May 2009 | News
Malaysian youth: least concerned about climate change
A survey has revealed that 67 per cent of Asia’s eight to 24 year-olds are concerned about the effects of climate change, however 13 per cent of young Malaysians said they do not believe that the climate is changing.
4 May 2009 | News
Swine flu prompts teleworking rethink
The threat of a pandemic are prompting governments to evaluate the role of teleworking to keep essential services up-and-running.
29 April 2009 | News
Citizen satisfaction with e-government falls in the US
Citizen satisfaction with federal government web sites has fallen in the US in the first quarter of this year, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index.
29 April 2009 | News
Hong Kong University staff accused of IT contract fraud
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has charged a professor at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) for alleged conspiracy to defraud the university in relation to an information technology (IT) service contract.
28 April 2009 | News
China's local govts embrace green procurement
China’s State Council has asked local governments to buy more energy-efficient products, reflecting the country’s determination to make its economic growth cleaner.
28 April 2009 | News
India and Africa’s satellite links set to expand
An ambitious project to link up African Union countries with Indian hospitals and universities via satellite will accelerate this year after a pilot project in Ethiopia proved successful.
27 April 2009 | News
Russian Minister: e-government to curb bureaucracy
The creation of an e-government in Russia will rid people of bureaucratic procedures, Minister of Mass Communications Igor Shchegolev has said.
24 April 2009 | News
New solution to protect business communications
The offering aims to prevent lost email under its existing security infrastructure
23 April 2009 | News
Singapore police calls for witnesses through online TV
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has teamed up with Singapore Press Holdings’ online television service, Razor TV, in an effort to appeal for crime witnesses through short video clips.
22 April 2009 | News
Singapore’s e-filing rate hits record high
About 91 per cent of the country’s taxpayers filed their tax returns online this year
22 April 2009 | News
Government to buck trend for cutting green IT
Governments are expected to buck an industry-wide trend for diverting spend away from green IT projects due to the global economic downturn, according to IT analyst Gartner.
22 April 2009 | News
Bangladesh plans for strict cyber-crime laws
Bangladesh is planning stringent measures to fight cyber crime amid the rapid expansion of information and communication technology and telecommunications networks in the South Asian country.
22 April 2009 | News
Technical glitches trouble Indonesia's elections
Technical glitches to the electronic vote-counting system used in Indonesia could delay the elections, the archipelago’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned.
22 April 2009 | News
Sun/Oracle merger: why the public sector should worry
Oracle Corporation’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems should worry the public sector because the enlarged entity could lead to price hikes and “vendor lock-in”, according to an IT analyst.
22 April 2009 | News
Bhutan moves towards hi-tech healthcare
To address the shortage of medical specialists in the country with a population of 700,000, Bhutan’s Ministry of Health has launched two telemedicine projects, where an expert from India can diagnose and advise on a case of a critically ill Bhutanese patient—all via the internet and through videoconferencing.
21 April 2009 | News
YouTube's education portal well received in Hong Kong
YouTube’s launch of a global education portal has been greeted with enthusiasm by educators in Hong Kong, which now have access to videos of lectures, seminars and conferences from more than 100 schools – but so far only from English-speaking countries in the West.
21 April 2009 | News
Thailand govt to go all-electronic by 2015
Thailand’s Information and Communications Technology Ministry plans to launch an ‘E-government Road Map’ as a framework for the digitisation of government between 2010 to 2014. The project is expected to cost of US$5.61 million.
20 April 2009 | News
Singapore Police Force on Facebook
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) has become the latest Singaporean government agency to embrace social networking by launching its own Facebook page.
20 April 2009 | News
China's e-gov network nears completion
All of China’s government administrations at central, provincial and municipal levels have all now set up official websites, Yang Xueshan, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology Ministry at the China E-government Forum has said.
16 April 2009 | News
Utah state offers services via iPhone
Residents of the US state of Utah have been given access to iPhone applications developed by a state government for the first time.
16 April 2009 | News
Bahrain hires e-government measurement firm
Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority has signed an agreement with Nielsen Company, a provider of market information and indices, to assess public satisfaction with electronic services in the kingdom.
15 April 2009 | News
Hong Kong's tax office casts doubt over the cloud
Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue has voiced concerns over the security of using cloud computing services to manage tax payer information.
15 April 2009 | News
Bahrain launches complaint service site
Bahrain’s Industry and Commerce Ministry has launched a web site for unsatisfied customers to lodge complaints against a product or service.
15 April 2009 | News
China vows to promote transparency in government affairs
The Chinese government will make more effort to keep the public informed of government affairs, said the National Human Rights Action Plan of China released Monday by the Information Office of China’s State Council.
15 April 2009 | News
E-governance makes slow progress in Sindh
Five government departments in Sindh — one of Pakistan’s four provinces — were connected via information technology last year, but officials have been reluctant to use the network, according to Minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon.
15 April 2009 | News
Australia to harmonise emergency services communications
Senator Stephen Conroy, Australia’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has welcomed proposals to harmonise the spectrum for emergency radio services across the country.
10 April 2009 | News
Philippine president orders state agencies to cut waste
Cut government waste. Tighten your belts. Live within your means. Those were the orders of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to all government departments and agencies to save money for food, fuel and rice subsidies for the poorest of the poor.
10 April 2009 | News
The future of a recession-proof technology
Matt Jackson, Polycom’s Global Director for Government, talks about his observations and vision on teleconferencing
9 April 2009 | News
Fiji: School exam system to go online
Republic of the Fiji Islands has announced that schools and students will soon have the opportunity to register for examinations and check results online, says the Ministry of Education.
7 April 2009 | News
China to phase-in unified healthcare network
Part of its vision to provide ‘safe, effective, convenient and affordable’ health services to every Chinese citizen by 2020
7 April 2009 | News
Asian govts unaware of serious data leaks: CA
Data losses are much more serious than governments in Asia are aware of, an executive at Computer Associates has revealed to FutureGov.
7 April 2009 | News
Japan to invest US$3bn in ICT
The Japanese government plans to inject 3 trillion yen (US$29.8 billion) into ICT infrastructure over the next three years in a bid to boost growth in the sector.
7 April 2009 | News
Govts invest in fuel-saving air traffic system
Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US are among the countries to have supported the adoption of a new technology to reduce fuel consumption - and so carbon dioxide emissions - of air traffic.
7 April 2009 | News
Microsoft updates e-health platform
Microsoft is set to unveil a new version of its software for aggregating health records which it claims makes it easier for patients and doctors to share information electronically.
7 April 2009 | News
Australia plots $31bn broadband network
The Australian government is to build a A$43bn ($31bn) national broadband network, the country’s largest infrastructure project, after abandoning a A$4.7bn tender process that it said failed to offer value for money.
6 April 2009 | News
Chinese annual gov budget posted online for first time
China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) posted the central fiscal budget for 2009 on its website 27 March 2009, a week after it was approved by the Second Session of the 11th National People’s Congress.
6 April 2009 | News
The Philippines slips in network readiness study
The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 placed the Philippines at 85 out of 134 countries in the network-readiness index that identifies points that allows for a country to establish and improve their own ICT infrastructure.
1 April 2009 | News
Downturn drives popularity of e-books in Asia
The popularily of e-books is on the rise in Asia as the region’s schools and universities look to make cost-savings and save on storage space.
31 March 2009 | News
Technology unites domestic workers in tough times
Information communications technology (ICT) is helping to keep family ties strong for Southeast Asia’s overseas domestic workers, who face increasing pressure as their job prospects shrink. So says Dr Theresa Devasahayam, Gender Studies Programme Coordinator at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
31 March 2009 | News
Japan: public do not trust bureaucrats
More than 70 per cent of the Japanese public do not trust bureaucrats—a tiny and elite fraction of the country’s more than 1 million national government employees.
31 March 2009 | News
The Philippines admits need for cybersecurity programme
Government web sites in the Philippines are vulnerable to computer attacks and without a nationwide cybersecurity programme, government cannot keep hackers at bay, says the National Computer Center (NCC), an agency under the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).
31 March 2009 | News
US healthcare centre slashes heart attack death risk
‘Integration approach’ with engaged clinical team and advanced technology help US care giver deliver dramatic results
31 March 2009 | News
Glass ceiling hangs over Asian civil service
A glass ceiling is still firmly in place for women in the top echelons of the civil service in Southeast Asia. So says Dr Susan Blackburn, Associate Professor at Australia’s Monash University, and an expert on Southeast Asian politics.
30 March 2009 | News
Record Earth Hour participation from Asia’s governments
Many countries and municipalities switch off lights for an hour in support of the WWF-led initiative
30 March 2009 | News
Chinese cyber spy network revealed
A cyber spy network based mainly in China has tapped into classified documents from government and private organisations in 103 countries, according to a report by a Canadian research group released on Sunday (29 March 2009).
26 March 2009 | News
USB drive with patient data goes missing in Hong Kong
Sensitive data of 47 patients are on the lost personal USB flash drive of a Hong Kong public hospital doctor
26 March 2009 | News
Seeking the real value of SOA
More than three years ago, at the first SOA seminar that your correspondent attended, a handful of visionaries were spending the whole two days explaining to the puzzled CIOs and IT managers what SOA was, what benefits it could bring and in which areas they should start their pilots.
25 March 2009 | News
Hong Kong govt steps up recruitment
The Hong Kong Government will step up its recruitment exercise and hire 6300 people over a one year period starting from now.
24 March 2009 | News
Indian elections go high-tech
Bangalore, the technology capital of India, will be using technology to improve the transparency of its elections in the state.
24 March 2009 | News
Singapore takes green roads route
Japan, United States and the UK have been using recycled materials to build roads for sometime - now Singapore’s roads are going green too.
24 March 2009 | News
Indonesia's Health Minister rejects foreign funding
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari has called on the country’s medical institutions to carry out their own virus and DNA research free of foreign funding - to avoid “exploitation” from developed countries and the possibility of a future biological attack against the world’s largest Muslim nation.
24 March 2009 | News
Broadband brings medical specialists to Australian bush
The Australia federal government has endorsed a telemedicine trial by Victorian health authorities, using videoconferencing technology that has already been used successfully in New South Wales (NSW).
24 March 2009 | News
SAS: business analytics should be a strategic priority
Governments are facing many priorities in tough economic circumstances, and business analytics should be a strategic priority, according to SAS head of technology practice, Singapore & emerging markets, Shanmugar Sunthar.
24 March 2009 | News
Singapore reveals plan behind Jobs Credit Scheme
Singapore’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) has revealed details of the plan behind the Jobs Credit Scheme, the S$4.5 billion (US$3 billion) initiative introduced earlier this year to save jobs by subsidising part of employers’ wage bills.
23 March 2009 | News
Vietnam makes cost savings via video-conferencing
Vietnam’s Government Office announced last week that the Chairmen of provincial-level people’s committees will attend the government’s socio-economic discussions via videoconferencing systems from late this month.
23 March 2009 | News
IT chief: e-gov in South Africa has a long way to go
The development of e-government in South Africa still has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the world, the country’s State IT Agency Chief of Strategic Services Moses Mtimunye has warned.
23 March 2009 | News
Local gov opposes central gov funding projects in Japan
A survey by Japan’s largest newspaper found that almost two thirds of local government officials think that the central government should abolish a system that requires local governments to cover a portion of expenses for central government projects.
23 March 2009 | News
Poverty holds back e-gov services in the UK
A survey by UK government telecoms regulator Ofcom has found that e-government services are becoming increasingly popular - but are held back by the digital divide.
18 March 2009 | News
South Korea sells e-govt expertise to Kyrgyzstan
The central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan is to become the eighth country to embrace an e-government master plan with South Korea’s help. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 10 March 2009 that mandates cooperation on educational training programmes that will enable Kyrgyzstan to introduce and operate its own e-government system.
18 March 2009 | News
Three quarters of gov agencies to embrace GIS
Three-quarters of government agencies in Europe and North America have, or plan to implement geographic information systems (GIS) for crime monitoring, urban planning, traffic monitoring and national defense, according to a survey by market analyst Datamonitor.
18 March 2009 | News
Victoria crime reporting practices slammed
The Ombudsman of Victoria, an independent officer of the Victorian Parliament who investigates complaints about state government departments, has slammed the Victorian Police’s crime reporting practices.
18 March 2009 | News
Qatar adopts mobile health messages
E-government services are going mobile and Qatar is the latest to jump on the bandwagon. Qatar’s Sidar Medical and Research Centre will be making public health information available via mobile phones, says David Kerr, the country’s Chief Research Adviser.
18 March 2009 | News
India’s low-cost laptop: still too pricey
The cost of the controversial low-cost laptop is not yet low enough for ordinary Indians, a prominent e-governance expert admitted in an interview with FutureGov.
17 March 2009 | News
Pressure grows on India’s e-governance mandate
India’s government has come under increasing pressure to “reach out” to its citizens as elections grip the world’s largest democracy.
16 March 2009 | News
SWJU installs China's largest campus wireless network
China’s Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJU) is installing a wireless network to digitally connect the campus. The project is believed to the largest of its kind in the country.
11 March 2009 | News
Tibco: new US CIO needs discipline and focus
Tibco’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Don Adams has praised President Barack Obama’s appointment of Vivek Kundra as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the United States government, but warns that Kundra will have to have “laser beam focus” on where he can achieve early successes.
10 March 2009 | News
Malaysia to speed up digital inclusion
All ongoing programmes on closing the digital divide in Malaysia need to be completed by 2010, according to Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum, Deputy Minister of Malaysia’s Energy, Water and Communications Ministry.
10 March 2009 | News
Singapore agency saves millions through Green IT
SINGAPORE’S Land Transport Authority has saved over US$5.55 million since embarking on its Green IT initiative.
10 March 2009 | News
The Philippines links with UN for ICT training
The Philippines, known as the “SMS capital of the world,” has received a boost to its information and technology (ICT) capabilities with the introduction of a special UN training programme for forty chief information officers (CIOs) from the country’s central government agencies.
10 March 2009 | News
VoIP phones make savings for Indian state
Bihar, India’s third largest state, has reportedly made cost savings from the launch of a state-wide area network (SWAN) and secretariat local area network (SecLAN) rolled out for local government officials, removing the need to pay service providers for telephone lines.
9 March 2009 | News
Four Asian countries make e-government top ten
Four Asian countries have made the top ten rankings of a global e-government study, with Singapore moving above the United States to top the table for the first time.
9 March 2009 | News
Korea’s tourism agency launches controversial online advertising campaign
Korea’s Department of Tourism has commissioned controversial web traffic company uSocial for a large-scale online advertising campaign.
6 March 2009 | News
Singapore government shows confidence in cloud computing
Despite security fears raised by the “G-fail” incident last week, when an overloaded data centre in Europe prevented millions of Gmail users from accessing their accounts, the Singapore government has given cloud computing its vote of confidence.
5 March 2009 | News
Hong Kong: how to make clinical computing a reality
Asia’s hospitals still have a long way to go before clinical computing is a reality, Dr N. T. Cheung, Chief Medical Officer at the Hong Kong Hospital Authority told delegates at the Government Information Forum last week (Wednesday 4 March).
5 March 2009 | News
Malaysia: how to create a more agile government
Governments must become more agile to meet rising citizen expectations for service delivery, Haji Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, Undersecretary of Malaysia’s Ministry of Information urged delegates at the Government Information Forum last week (Wednesday 4 March).
3 March 2009 | News
Govts should release more data for innovation’s sake
The research director behind a 12-country study on ‘generation Y’ has suggested that governments in Asia should cede more control of information to citizens in the name of innovation.
2 March 2009 | News
Rising to governments’ data centre energy challenge
Green energy projects have come under mounting pressure as the economic situation worsens, but governments should be thinking about energy conservation now more than ever, insists a consultant at APC, the Schneider-owned cooling services giant.
2 March 2009 | News
Chinese premier debuts online chat with public
Wen Jiabao, the Premier of China, went online last Saturday for a two-hour chat with netizens across the country.
2 March 2009 | News
Philippine CICT chairman cool on cloud computing
The Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) in the Philippines has said that the “inherent risks” of cloud computing need to be addressed before government embraces it is a viable way of managing information.
2 March 2009 | News
Japan introduces ID cards to sniff out illegal immigrants
The Japanese government plans to strengthen its efforts to prevent foreigners from staying in the country illegally by consolidating administrative systems for foreign residents in the nation, according to a draft bill to revise the immigration law.
2 March 2009 | News
Korea plans to merge government agencies
The Korea government has finalised a plan to restructure the country’s state-run agencies, with 25 state-run organisations to be merged to form 11 new entities within the first half of this year.
27 February 2009 | News
Green Growth Commission launched in Korea
Korean President Lee Myung-bak has announced the launch of an agency – the Green Growth Commission – which has a brief to implement the country’s vision for “low carbon, green growth”.
27 February 2009 | News
India rolls out US$351 million e-services network
The Indian government has approved a US$351 million initiative to deliver government-to-government, government-to-business and government-to-citizen e-services in 32 states and Union Territories (UTs) across the country.
25 February 2009 | News
Australia’s net filter plan under attack
Australia’s controversial Federal Cyber Safety Plan (FCSP), which could see internet service providers filtered for illegal and illicit content, has come up against staunch resistance from citizens and ISPs involved at the test stage.
25 February 2009 | News
SaaS healthcare solution for Singapore
Singapore General Hospital (SGH) will introduce an e-health record and management system by the end of 2009. The Community Care Management Solution (CCMS) will be accessible to all wards and polyclinics.
25 February 2009 | News
Blunkett: UK becoming a 'big brother' state
David Blunkett, the former home secretary of the United Kingdom, has warned that the UK is in danger of becoming a ‘big brother’ state.
24 February 2009 | News
The region’s healthcare sector sees strong SAP adoption
Despite the current economic downturn, the company continues to witness strong momentum in the healthcare sector.
24 February 2009 | News
Recession drives Irish government services online
Ireland is looking to e-government to make savings as tough economic times bite, while education online can be up to 40 per cent cheaper than educating people in a classroom, according to an Irish online strategy company.
24 February 2009 | News
Singapore to engage new media at general elections
Singapore’s government has signalled its intention to embrace new media at the next general election.
18 February 2009 | News
Japan govt revises "green purchase" law
The Japanese government has revised its guidelines for the so-called ‘‘green purchase’’ law, which requires offices of government ministries and agencies to use environmentally friendly products for designated equipment.
18 February 2009 | News
World’s largest virtualised desktop deployment in Brazil’s schools
Brazil is to install 356,800 virtualised desktops to schools in all of the country’s 5560 municipalities, allowing millions of schoolchildren to access information technology across the country.
18 February 2009 | News
Singapore's IDA launches e-govt consultancy
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority has launched an international consultancy to help other countries develop their e-government infrastructure.
18 February 2009 | News
Philippines govt looks to improve communications strategy
More than 100 Government Information Officers from 50 government agencies in the Philippines have met amid concerns that poor information supplied to the media will lead to bad press.
17 February 2009 | News
Singapore govt to respond to citizens via web
Government officials in Singapore will soon respond directly to comments on an internet discussion board.
17 February 2009 | News
ADB to probe health spending in Asia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is planning a study on how spending on maternal, newborn and child healthcare is hurting the poor in the Asia Pacific region.
15 February 2009 | News
Is your agency equipped to repel a ‘cyber attack’?
The more government leverages technology to automate core business processes, the more vulnerable to cyber attack it becomes. In the United States, experts have been warning for years against an ‘electronic Pearl Harbor’, a ‘digital September 11’ or a ‘Cybergeddon’.
12 February 2009 | News
Indian state's e-services woes
Coimbatore city in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, is looking at ways to popularise an online registration of birth and death facility. Despite having the process moved online since 1996, the number of online applications average at two to three a month.
11 February 2009 | News
Singapore citizens to get road info on mobile phones
All traffic and road information will eventually be made available to citizens in real-time via mobile phone, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) chief executive Yam Ah Mee has said.
11 February 2009 | News
Investment in HK Clinical Management System paying off
Over the past decade, Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HKHA) has dedicated itself to bringing world-class healthcare systems to its citizens. The growing popularity of the web has opened up various windows of opportunities…
10 February 2009 | News
Education moves online in India
Arjun Singh, Minister of Human Resource Development, has launched the country’s first e-education programme in Tirupati, the temple town of Andra Pradesh, India.
10 February 2009 | News
Bahrainian govt launches building maintenance e-service
The Ministry of Works in Bahrain has launched the building maintenance application service via the Bahrain e-government portal web site.
6 February 2009 | News
Queensland trials telehealth project
The Australian state of Queensland has launched a telehealth project in the local government district of Ipswich to improve the efficiency of treatment for patients with chronic disease.
6 February 2009 | News
Singapore Minister: data burden to rise as IT budgets fall
IT budgets may be falling but the volume of data generated by governments will continue to rise exponentially this year, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran warned today (Friday February 6th).
6 February 2009 | News
Indian state rolls out telemedicine centres
The Orissa Trust of Technical Education and Training has announced plans to roll out telemedicine centres in villages across the state—the ninth largest in India.
5 February 2009 | News
AGIMO restructures for watchdog role
The Australian Government Information Management Office has been restructured for its new role as Canberra’s technology spending and governance watchdog.
5 February 2009 | News
Australian govt funds 141,000 laptops for schools
The Federal Government in Australia has allocated a second round funding of US$91 million to enable almost 1400 schools nationwide to purchase computers for students.
4 February 2009 | News
New Zealand discontinues Government Shared Network
State Services Minister Tony Ryall has announced that the government’s Government Shared Network (GSN) is to be discontinued because it is financially unsustainable. Participating government agencies will be moved to a new provider in the private sector.
4 February 2009 | News
Korea plans on super broadband
By 2013, South Korea will install a nation-wide super-broadband infrastructure which will enable the downloading of a feature film to be completed in one or two seconds.
3 February 2009 | News
China passes new medical reform plan
China’s State Council passed a long awaited medical reform plan which promised to spend 850 billion yuan (US$123 billion) by 2011 to provide universal medical service to the country’s 1.3 billion population.
3 February 2009 | News
Taking the best of Web 2.0 into the public sector
With the widespread use of the internet and the enormous success of social network platforms, governments around the world are jumping on the bandwagon and work on strategies how to expand their services by incorporating Web 2.0 technologies.
28 January 2009 | News
Australia e-health system in the mill
The standards and foundations for nation-wide e-health solutions in Australia have now mainly been completed, according to Peter Fleming, Chief Executive Officer of National E-Health Transition Authority, leaving implementation on the agenda for 2009.
28 January 2009 | News
Cambodia to leverage on video-conferencing
Hun Sen Prime Minister of Cambodia has announced plans to install video-conferencing facilities at key military headquarters throughout the country with the aim of promoting e-government, reducing government expenditure on transport, and improving national security.
28 January 2009 | News
Over 13,000 Indian local govts get broadband connection
In India, the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a project that will provide broadband connectivity to all 13,693 local governments at the village level, otherwise known as gram panchayats.
28 January 2009 | News
Asian countries' e-govt rankings revealed
According to the “Improving Technology Utilisation in Electronic Government around the World 2008” report by the Governance Studies of the Brookings Institution, the most highly ranked e-government nations are South Korea (securing the 1st position for the second consecutive year), Taiwan, the US, Singapore, Canada and Australia.
27 January 2009 | News
Australian university increases performance and cost savings
CQUniversity, an Australian university with 10 campuses and more than 21,000 students and staff, has migrated its critical IT systems to Red Hat solutions and has since realised significant cost savings, increased performance, ease of management and reliable, ongoing support.
24 January 2009 | News
German hospital group to adopt LORENZO
German hospital group, Krankenhaus Buchholz and Winsen, becomes IBA Health Group Limited (ASX: IBA)’s latest iSOFT customer for LORENZO. IBA specialises in building software applications for healthcare and it’s the largest health information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
23 January 2009 | News
The Philippines and Korea exchange teaching expertise
Twenty-one teachers of information and communication technology in Manila are participating in a training seminar conducted by South Korean volunteers, in line with their government’s bilateral cooperation with the Philippines.
22 January 2009 | News
ICT links 18,000 Indian colleges
The central government in India has approved a new scheme to use IT in providing personalised and interactive knowledge modules to students.
21 January 2009 | News
Singapore govt services on the go
Under the Mobile Government project by the Ministry of Finance and the Infocomm Development Authority, the Singapore government currently has 200 of its services accessible though mobile devices.
21 January 2009 | News
Bahrain to standardise govt ICT
The eGovernment Authority of Bahrain has rolled out a new initiative “Enterprise Architecture Project” to upgrade and standardise the level of Information Communication Technology in all government entities.
21 January 2009 | News
Rampant e-govt plans for Vietnam
The Vietnamese government will upgrade its IT infrastructure in tandem with requirements for modern e-government activities.
20 January 2009 | News
NSW Police armed with information
New South Wales police will benefit from the introduction of a new national information-sharing platform that enables police and law enforcement agencies to exchange and access detailed profiles of persons of interest across all jurisdictions.
20 January 2009 | News
Cambodia drafts law to regulate internet
The Ministry of Information is currently drafting a law that will extend current print media rules to other media platform, including the internet.
20 January 2009 | News
Vietnam to launch e-procurement system
The Korea International Cooperation Agency and the Vietnam Department of Public Procurement, an agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, have announced plans for the establishment of an electronic procurement system.
19 January 2009 | News
Bangladesh introduces telehealth services
From February onwards, the Bangladesh government will have in place “Telehealth Care Services” at every public hospital in the country. The aim of this project is to make healthcare available to everyone in the country.
16 January 2009 | News
“There is room for both”
Both WiMAX & LTE will thrive, according to Ben Cardwell, Vice President of Andrew
15 January 2009 | News
Indian state establishes e-governance agency
In India, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir has set up an exclusive e-governance agency, called the JAKEGA, with an empowered Board of Governors, headed by the State Chief Secretary Mr C. Phunsong.
14 January 2009 | News
India state hospitals to be inter-connected
Government-run hospitals in the state will soon be electronically inter-connected and every patient visiting the hospital will be given a unique health identity number and will have access to his medical history at any hospital across the state.
13 January 2009 | News
OLPC cuts staff but promotes free laptops
The ambitious One Laptop Per Child programme has announced huge staff cutting measures. OLPC’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte, has called the process “streamlining” and “refocusing on our mission.”
12 January 2009 | News
The Philippines hands out cash for education
Esperanza I. Cabral, Social Welfare and Development Secretary, The Philippines, announced that more than 6500 families will have a brighter year this 2009 as they receive cash grants from the 4Ps project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
9 January 2009 | News
China to reform public healthcare
Responding to growing public criticism of soaring medical fees, lack of access to medical services and poor doctor-patient relations, the Chinese government will launch a pilot programme to reform its public hospitals.
9 January 2009 | News
Australia to spend US$2M on homeless aged
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Justine Elliot, Minister for Ageing have announced a US$2 million grant to Wintringham, a Melbourne-based organisation that provides affordable housing and support services to elderly homeless people.
9 January 2009 | News
Korea: IT to tide over economic crisis
In wake of the economic crisis, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the more difficulties they will face, the more investment the government should make in technology.
9 January 2009 | News
Tamil Nadu—best e-governed state in India
According to a national e-governance survey, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have emerged among the top five e-governed states in India in 2008-09.
9 January 2009 | News
Pakistan province to spend US$624m on education
Lahore, the capital of Punjab province in Pakistan has termed the promotion of education as the topmost priority for the provincial government. Raja Riaz Ahmad Senior Minister has said that the government will introduce IT education to secondary and higher secondary schools.
8 January 2009 | News
India: SMS for police help
The Hyderabad police have launched SMS facility for quick access to the police. In case of emergency, citizens of Hyderabad can get help by texting the police.
6 January 2009 | News
Health smart cards for India's poor
The Indian government will bear the treatment costs of the poor under a new health insurance scheme. Using a smart card embedded with 11 types of software, patients can now afford the services of private or government hospitals through cashless and paperless transactions.
6 January 2009 | News
South Korea in US$87b public sector boost
The South Korean government will spend the bulk of the local administrative budget for 2009 in the first half of this year and also aims to create some 70,000 new public sector jobs.
6 January 2009 | News
Malaysian govt to introduce e-stamping
Stamping of documents will go online with the introduction of an e-stamping system by the Inland Revenue Board.
5 January 2009 | News
Australian government bolsters e-security
Robert McClelland Attorney-General and Senator Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy jointly announced the first outcomes from the E-Security Review 2008.
5 January 2009 | News
New avenue for Indian citizens to post grievances
To streamline and improve the civil administration, the Margao Municipal Council in Goa, India, has stepped up on its e-governance by encouraging people to post their problems and seek solutions by sending their queries to the e-mail address: mmc@gmail.com. This email address is being protected from spam bots and will require Javascript to view it.
1 January 2009 | News
Plans for e-university in India
The creation of an e-university in Karnataka will see lecture notes being emailed to students, an added convenience to both students and teachers, according to B L Sridhar, principal secretary, department of personnel and administrative reforms (e-governance).
30 December 2008 | News
Indian university stresses role of video conferencing
Periyar Maniammai University in Tamil Nadu state of India plans to introduce courses in distant learning through video conferencing.
29 December 2008 | News
Ministerial panel to draft India schools’ ICT policy
Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has ordered the constitution of a new ministerial committee to draft the national policy for introduction of ICT in schools and directed that future policy formulation should not be outsourced’ to private parties.
29 December 2008 | News
Malaysia opens online varsity
The Asia e University, an international university based in Malaysia, accepted its first batch of students last month. Working entirely online, AeU was set up with the support of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, a forum with 31 member countries, benefitting it with resources from all members through collaborations with institutes of higher learning and training centres.
23 December 2008 | News
Australian govt invests US$3.2 billion
The Rudd Government in Australia has announced a US$3.2 billion investment in the nation’s education infrastructure, along with changes to the tax system to stimulate the economy and help Australian businesses.
23 December 2008 | News
More Arabic web sites in the Middle East
A new project to digitise approximately 18,000 books in Arabic has been implemented in Qatar and the Gulf.
22 December 2008 | News
Australian govt trials blog for public feedback
In Australia, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is trialling a blog in a bid to use public feedback in developing a ‘Future Directions Paper for the Digital Economy.’
22 December 2008 | News
Broadband centre for every parliamentary constituency in Malaysia
The Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission aims to establish a broadband community centre for every parliamentary constituency in the country, which currently numbers 222
19 December 2008 | News
E-govt in Vietnam must tie in with administrative reform
In Vietnam, Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Hop said the implementation of e-government should go hand-in-hand with administrative reform rather than simply an effort at computerisation. He was speaking to audiences during the 6th annual Vietnam e-government Symposium held recently.
18 December 2008 | News
India’s internet connectivity supports e-govt plans
India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world for high internet use. The Internet Governance forum has pinned the country as lagging behind only the United States, China and Japan with 81 million internet users in the country.
18 December 2008 | News
UN launches e-learning initiative in over 160 countries
A new UN e-learning initiative will offer developing countries opportunities to draw upon a rich array of training and capacity-building resources.
17 December 2008 | News
Royal Thai Navy updates network
The Royal Thai Navy has committed to a US$1 million upgrade of its administrative LAN, with the objective to keep up with rapid growth of users, who demand for faster online applications.
17 December 2008 | News
Faster tracking of applications for Vietnamese
In Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh city government has launched an electronic certificate tracking service on December 12 this year, allowing people who have applied for business registration certificates, land documents, building permits or other documents to track the progress of their application.
15 December 2008 | News
Industry-first metric for data centres
Return on investment of energy efficient infrastructure and equipment can now be calculated with an industry-first metric from Emerson Network Power.
11 December 2008 | News
Indian state sets January date for e-Govt launch
The Orissa Government has charted out ambitious plans to transform the state as the number one destination for IT companies as well as professionals by 2012.
11 December 2008 | News
Free laptops for New South Wales students
Starting 2009, every New South Wales public school student in years nine to 12 in Australia will receive a lightweight mini laptop, otherwise known as a netbook, after the state government recanted its opposition to the Commonwealth’s computers in school programmes.
11 December 2008 | News
Vietnam’s online ministerial e-govt dialogue
Deputy Ministry for Information and Communications affirms government’s strong pushes of e-govt in an online dialogue session.
10 December 2008 | News
Australian govt approves sharing of patients' e-records
At a recent meeting in Brisbane, health ministers in Australia have finally agreed on a national plan to share patients’ electronic records, on the same day a new study slammed scattergun spending of almost AUD$1.3 billion (US$856 million) on state-based e-health schemes.
9 December 2008 | News
Scottish Govt upgrades records management system
The Scottish Government has successfully upgraded its mission critical electronic Records and Document Management system in under a week, with minimum disruptions of service to its 6300 users.
5 December 2008 | News
US$350 million loan for Indonesia regional govt
Improved financial and economic management at all levels of government will be the outcome of a US$350 million programme loan granted by the Asian Development Bank for Indonesian regional and local government reform.
5 December 2008 | News
ASEAN camp equips children with IT skills
The Asean Cyberkids Camp launched recently at the Sheraton Subang Hotel & Towers in Malaysia brought together 120 school children accompanied by their teachers from nine countries across the Asean region.
4 December 2008 | News
Korea's four year plan for e-govt improvement
E-government in Korea will develop so completely by 2012 that after an online notification to a village office, citizens will see their change of home address for mail services, children’s transfer to new schools and everything else taken care of automatically. Meanwhile, IT infrastructure will become even more sophisticated and the speed of Internet connections will increase ten-fold.
4 December 2008 | News
Israel upgrades government LAN
The Government of Israel has awarded a multi-million-dollar networking solutions contract for its new LAN infrastructure project, as part of the Government’s plans to build a modern, cutting-edge network to support its growing online initiatives.
4 December 2008 | News
Indian school goes wireless
The students of Manipal University in India will be able to access the internet from the classroom to even the parking areas, having migrated to an all-wireless network infrastructure.
3 December 2008 | News
India to be one-fifth of global WiMAX users by 2012
By 2012, more than 27.5 million Indians will be WiMAX users.
3 December 2008 | News
New department in Microsoft for mobile services in Asia
Microsoft has a new Mobile Platform, Applications and Services Business Development Asia team which will be promoting Microsoft’s mobile platform and deploying new mobile services and applications from the company across Asia.
3 December 2008 | News
New tool for Thai model school
Wang Klaikangwon School is to benefit 77 rural schools in Thailand with the deployment of servers containing electronic Distance Learning Television
2 December 2008 | News
Health card launched for Indian expatriates
In India, a prepaid healthcare card has been launched to provide access to health services for Non-resident Indians’ families, through a network of healthcare providers.
1 December 2008 | News
Indian state to deploy WiMAX for e-govt
Chhattisgarh state government will modernise its communication infrastructure to connect all its departments with a new, high bandwidth State Wide Area Network.
1 December 2008 | News
Bali steps up e-government plans
Governor Made Mangku Pastika of the Indonesian island, Bali, has announced its complete transition towards e-government in two years.
29 November 2008 | News
Thai ICT ministry says WiMax and 3G licences imminent
The Information and Communications Technology ministry says WiMax and third-generation mobile network operating licences should be allocated to operators by mid-2009.
28 November 2008 | News
SingHealth activates integrated EHR
The successful implementation at Singapore’s largest healthcare group improves quality of care across its three hospitals with more than 3000 beds in total.
27 November 2008 | News
Virtual doctor in your bedroom
A new care management tool designed for health care professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions has been launched.
26 November 2008 | News
The region’s significant disparity in internet access remains
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific said that despite significant progress that Asia and the Pacific had made in using ICT, a significant disparity in internet access remained within the region.
26 November 2008 | News
Election processes improved with GIS
For the 2008 elections, the Registrar of Voters of Alameda County in California used ESRI’s GIS software to simplify precinct analysis and polling station siting processes.
26 November 2008 | News
ADB funds green projects in India
The Asian Development Bank is to help set up a fund that will mobilise financing for energy efficiency projects in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
26 November 2008 | News
Myanmar rolls-out urban Wi-fi network
Myanmar has announced plans to install a Wi-Fi network in Yangon by early next year. The system will be in service starting with the coverage of 16 main townships in the former capital city of Yangon.
25 November 2008 | News
Enhancing ICT capacity at Uzbek ministry
A training course on the role of ICT in public administration was organised by the Ministry of Economy of Uzbekistan and the UNDP.
25 November 2008 | News
Queensland pilots clean coal burning
A pilot programme in the Australian state of Queensland aims to burn coal more cleanly by capturing and storing carbon dioxide. This demonstration plant is the first of its kind to burn coal in oxygen instead of air.
25 November 2008 | News
Shanghai university receives UNESCO prize for ICT
The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, has named the laureates of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education.
24 November 2008 | News
Digital inclusion a main strategy for rural development
The State of Sarawak has listed narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural communities as one of the main rural development strategies for 2009.
24 November 2008 | News
Satellite connectivity for Indian villages
India is developing an “unconventional” satellite which would provide internet connectivity to the rural folks and render timely advice on various aspects of agriculture.
24 November 2008 | News
Personal health records to save US$21 billion a year?
A US study has projected that personal health records could potentially save the country US$21 billion a year.
24 November 2008 | News
New IT learning centres for seniors in Singapore
Two new IT learning hubs termed as the Silver Infocomm Junctions, have been established to promote IT literacy among senior citizens.
19 November 2008 | News
Ingres improves open source database availability
Ingres has enhanced its database solution to simplify application development and improve availability and system recovery. The new version of open source database has been launched by for business critical applications at an affordable cost.
19 November 2008 | News
ICT for education in rural Malaysia
A school in a remote part of Sabah state boasts a wireless connection and computer-aided programmes for its students to keep pace with the rest of Malaysia.
19 November 2008 | News
Filipino govt backs high school internet plans
To enhance the IT skills of high school students, the Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus recently announced plans to sustain the internet connection previously provided under the Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students programme.
18 November 2008 | News
All-of-govt agencies in Kuwait to share information
The Kuwaiti government has implemented the new Kuwait Information Network, which will see all of the country’s 62 government agencies collaborate and share information in a faster, more secure and more cost-effectively.
18 November 2008 | News
Better healthcare for rural Vietnam
Vietnam’s south central coast region, home to nine million people, including half a million people from ethnic minorities, will have the financing of Asian Development Bank for a project to improve healthcare services.
17 November 2008 | News
Indian doctors get remote access to patient records
The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in Mohali, has developed an internet-based software solution, e-Sanjeevani, to provide an interface between doctors and patients.
17 November 2008 | News
Laos harness education to reduce poverty
Laos seeks to raise its world standing by embracing education programmes that reduce local poverty.
14 November 2008 | News
Health Informatics user community launched
The Committee of Healthcare Informatics Users for Asia was officially launched in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
13 November 2008 | News
Brunei GCIO candid about e-govt inadequacies
Over ambitious moves to e-government led to ‘fragmentation’ of effort, says GCIO and Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office in Brunei.
13 November 2008 | News
South Korea creates 'digital city'
The Incheon Free Economic Zone and the Incheon Urban Development Corporation in South Korea has created Asia’s first ‘digital city’.
12 November 2008 | News
SMS for the nearest healthcare facility in India
If you happen to be anywhere in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, emergency relief is just an SMS away.
12 November 2008 | News
Korea helps Myanmar implement school project
The Korea International Cooperation Agency of South Korea will help Myanmar to implement a technical school project in the country’s Thagar area.
12 November 2008 | News
Pupils in Malaysian state to get laptops
Each of Terengganu’s 25,000 pupils will receive one laptop from the state government next year.
11 November 2008 | News
UNESCO helps Iraq launch educational TV channel
Iraqi children who are unable to attend classes due to security concerns will now be able to continue their studies through distance learning thanks to a new educational television channel launched by UNESCO and the education ministry in Iraq.
10 November 2008 | News
Low Cost Computers for Ugandan Schools
After two years of waiting, primary, secondary and tertiary institutions can now acquire low cost computers. The Uganda Ministry of Information and Communication Technology launched the Computers for Schools Uganda, a project aimed at bridging the digital-divide in the country.
10 November 2008 | News
Bahrain, a rising IT hub in the Gulf
Bahrain has strengthened its position as the IT hub of the region, with more international IT companies establishing their regional headquarters in the kingdom.
7 November 2008 | News
Mobile education launched in India
In line with its “Education anywhere and anytime” vision, the Indira Gandhi National Open University will soon impart student courses on public health, art, music and various other subjects through mobile phones.
7 November 2008 | News
GIS boosts law enforcement work in New York
The New York City Department of Probation has deployed ESRI’s geographic information system software to manage caseloads, track high-risk probationers, and share information with other law enforcement divisions more efficiently.
7 November 2008 | News
Dubai to assure quality in higher education
The Knowledge and Human Development Authority has set up a quality assurance board to review higher education in Dubai’s Free Zones. One aim of the Board, made up of quality assurance experts from around the world, will be to ensure that a degree earned from an international higher education establishment on a campus in Dubai is of the same value as that achieved in its country of origin.
5 November 2008 | News
Palestine seeks Estonia’s help for e-government
Estonia has received a request from Palestine to share its experiences in building an e-state.
4 November 2008 | News
Bahrain launches e-govt portal
Bahrain has introduced a new e-government gateway as an outcome of a study conducted to cater to the needs of the public through streamlining e-government services procedures.
3 November 2008 | News
Mobile security solution introduced in Singapore
SingTel, a major carrier in Singapore, has introduced a new product which ensures that confidential data on lost laptops is not compromised.
3 November 2008 | News
Microsoft unveils cloud computing system
Microsoft has introduced Windows Azure – an operating system that allows developers to build cloud-based applications.
31 October 2008 | News
Microsoft to help the Gulf develop public technology policy framework
The Dubai School of Government has signed a deal with Microsoft to develop a pioneering technology policy that will aid officials in the Gulf to improve service delivery to the public.
30 October 2008 | News
Singapore adopts standard terminology for EMR
Singapore is adopting a systemically organised collection of medical terminology for Electronic Medical Records to improve quality, safety of care and enhanced care coordination.
30 October 2008 | News
Australian govt’s carbon plan
Australia’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions through carbon trade will not be the “company killer” feared by business and no major polluters will be forced to move offshore, the government said.
30 October 2008 | News
Brunei and China ink MOU for IT collaboration
The Ministry of Communications in Brunei has inked a memorandum of understanding with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology during the Asean-China ICT Week 2008 held recently in Nanning, China.
30 October 2008 | News
US$250 million passport project launched in India
The Ministry of External Affairs in India will be rolling out the Passport Seva Project, the largest mission-critical e-governance project valued at over US$205 million.
29 October 2008 | News
Filipino education to get ICT boost
The Philippines Department of Education and the Oracle Education Foundation have agreed to roll out OEF’s ThinkQuest technology programme to 500 public elementary schools across the nation, reaching 50,000 students and teachers over the next two years.
28 October 2008 | News
Australian govt to consolidate 130 data centres
The New South Wales government has plans to consolidate its 130 data centres into two facilities in a bid to cut down on maintenance costs and energy consumption, according to the state’s CIO Emmanuel Rodriguez.
23 October 2008 | News
Fast wireless services set for rural areas in Japan
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has established a panel to promote next-generation fast wireless Internet communication services for rural areas.
23 October 2008 | News
China approves pilot project to service rural areas with wireless
China’s Ministry of Commerce has approved MediaG3’s pilot project for implementing mg3 wireless broadband service to over 900 million people in rural China.
22 October 2008 | News
Experts believe cloud computing increases risk of data leakage
Cloud computing has been illuminated as being thought to increase and not decrease the risk of data leakage. A recent symposium on the topic of ‘Cloud Computing’ reported a key finding in its post symposium survey: the attendees voted unanimously that cloud computing increases, not decreases the risk of data leakage.
22 October 2008 | News
Uganda's education needs internet subsidy
High internet connectivity costs remain a major handicap to the widespread integration of IT in teaching and research at Ugandan educational institutions.
22 October 2008 | News
Indian state gives all schools IT access
Andhra Pradesh, the largest and most populous state in South India, has become the first state to offer ICT education to all its 1.8 million school-going children, starting last Monday.
20 October 2008 | News
Malaysia builds 165 village IT centres
In Kuala Lumpur, a total of 165 Medan Infodesa centres, also known as IT centres, have been set up in villages to equip the rural folk with the necessary IT tools, facilities and training, in a bid to bridge the digital divide in the country.
16 October 2008 | News
Standards & interoperability priority for Health IT execs
A new survey on using HIT systems to support care management interventions highlights the need for many HIT applications to offer more functionality, standardisation and interoperability to optimise clinical and financial outcomes for patients.
15 October 2008 | News
Shenzhen hospitals to implement medical information systems
Three hospitals in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen have signed a US$2.2 million contract to build digital hospital and medical information systems.
15 October 2008 | News
Taiwan recycles 50 per cent of its e-waste
Taiwan has seen a dramatic increase in the volume of waste electronic and electrical products in recent years. Following several years of implementation of the “4-in-1” recycling scheme, the recycling rate of these products has now surpassed an impressive 50 per cent. Working to put the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system into full play, and make recycling targets more easily achievable, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is actively guiding manufacturers in the setting up of self-administered recycling, clearance and treatment systems.
15 October 2008 | News
Victorian govt cautioned against ICT skills shortage
The Victorian government has pumped an additional US$200.5 million in funding towards innovation initiatives in Victoria but the Australian Computer Society (ACS) has cautioned that ICT skills challenges could impact the success of some ventures.
14 October 2008 | News
All Korean adults under 40 connected
Internet penetration young Koreans is almost 100 percent, according to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC).
13 October 2008 | News
New Australian hospital acquires SOA-based IT system
Macquarie University Private Hospital, a new modern hospital due to be open in the latter half of 2009, has inked a deal worth up to A$7.6 million (US$ five million) for a range of advanced healthcare IT applications.
13 October 2008 | News
Malaysia launches high speed broadband deployment
The Malaysian government will invest RM2.4 billion (US$ 680 million) for the country’s national High Speed Broadband project, according to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
12 October 2008 | News
Singapore earmarks US$4 million to train energy managers
The National Environment Agency (NEA) in Singapore has set up a US$4 million grant to help defray the course fee of the Singapore Certified Energy Manager training programme. The grant will cover a substantial part of the training cost at the Professional Level.
10 October 2008 | News
Indian hospital network’s EMR to be ready this month
The initial Rs50 million (US$ one million) EMR system by Apollo Hospitals Group (AHG) will accomplish its dry run in October, revealed Sangita Reddy, AHG’s Executive Director.
10 October 2008 | News
‘Internet for Everyone’ campaign launched in Canada
Telecommunities Canada (TC), a national coalition of groups that promote and support community technology initiatives, has launched the “Internet for Everyone” campaign that seeks to put a national ICT strategy back on the federal agenda.
10 October 2008 | News
Indian state to replace telegram with e-post
E-post will replace old system of telegram service across the Indian state of Kerala, according to the state’s Chief Post Master General (CPMG), Dr Udaya Balakrishnan.
9 October 2008 | News
Korean govt spurs green rooftop plans
In a bid to ‘greening’ Seoul, the city government has been encouraging building owners to construct rooftop gardens as one of its “green Seoul” projects.
9 October 2008 | News
Nature-based enterprises to help rural poor
Expanding nature-based enterprises can increase income for the world’s rural poor. This approach, as outlined in World Resources Report 2008, can also develop the rural poor’s resilience to social and environmental threats such as climate change.
9 October 2008 | News
Israeli security expert discusses public safety at Singapore meeting
Ze’ev Sarig, Managing Director at the Ben-Gurion International Airport will discuss the leveraging of technology to prevent, respond to and recover from disasters and conflict.
9 October 2008 | News
Thai govt unveils first open-source software development roadmap
The Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) has developed Thailand’s first open-source software-development roadmap to transform the country into a leading open-source development centre by 2011.
8 October 2008 | News
Australian universities must upgrade network to keep up
Professor Larry Smarr, an internet expert in the US, has urged Australian universities to roll out new superhighways to ensure that scientists and innovators remain competitive in global research.
7 October 2008 | News
ICT initiative for African villages
The Imo State Government—a provincial government in oil-rich Nigeria—has plans to embark on an e-village project that would create a sustainable Information Communication Technology (ICT) foundation in the local government areas of the state.
5 October 2008 | News
Reducing IT carbon footprint by 80-90 per cent
‘Carbon Calculator’ and online ‘Server Consolidation Analysis Resource’ released.
2 October 2008 | News
Queensland ICT Industry Launches Green Initiatives
More than 170 Information Technology leaders from government and business participated in the launch of a new Green IT Industry Special Interest Group (SIG) and Taskforce in Brisbane to help the ICT industry move from discussion on Green IT to action and best practice.
2 October 2008 | News
Malaysia trials videoconferencing in courts
The Malaysian government is considering videoconferencing and other IT-related deployments in courts nationwide, following the successful implementation of a pilot project in Sarawak.
30 September 2008 | News
Korean govt bans personal e-mail and storage device for work
According to the guidelines announced by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, civil servants will be banned from using e-mail services provided by commercial companies like Naver, Daum, Google and MSN.
30 September 2008 | News
Shared services agency for NSW govt
The New South Wales state government has created a new shared services agency that will, among other things, provide centralised IT services to a large number of departments and agencies.
29 September 2008 | News
Free WiFi for Penang citizens
The Malaysian state has launched a free WiFi programme for residents, making it the country’s first.
29 September 2008 | News
Singapore’s Next-Gen broadband network nationwide by 2012
All homes and businesses in Singapore are to be connected to the country’s 1Gbps all-fibre National Broadband Network by 2012. The Singapore Government has selected a consortium to design, build and operate the passive infrastructure, in a move seen as world’s most radical structural separation of fixed telecoms.
25 September 2008 | News
Healthcare IT ‘specialised’
Small and far away from major markets, New Zealand has traditionally been ‘underserved’ by international healthcare IT vendors, according to Grant McPherson, Regional Director South/South East Asia at New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE).
25 September 2008 | News
New Zealand varsity upgrades backbone
With 22,000 students and 2000 staff on four major sites, Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, needs top grade communications. Efficient access to knowledge resources, administrative systems and educational applications all depend on reliable, high speed data connections throughout the campus.
25 September 2008 | News
South Korea shares egov insights
Civil servants from Paraguay are visiting South Korea to learn how to establish and run an e-government platform. The visit was organised by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s training centre for public employees and the Korea International Cooperation Agency.
25 September 2008 | News
Dubai egov partners university
Dubai eGovernment has signed an agreement with Zayed University to collaborate in providing career development opportunities for university students in the field of information technology.
24 September 2008 | News
More govt agencies in Malaysia establish online presence
In Malaysia, an increasing amount of government agencies are now appearing online, according to an assessment programme conducted by the three government agencies, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU).
24 September 2008 | News
Seoul inks plan for telephone services
Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has announced an ambitious vision to provide advanced telephone-based citizen services, modeled on popular government call centres in Europe.
23 September 2008 | News
Malaysian City to introduce free Wi-Fi
Free wireless internet access will be offered to the residents of Penang, a densely populated urban centre in northern Malaysia.
23 September 2008 | News
IBM tops security software report
A new report has rated IBM as the leading vendor worldwide in identity and access management security software in 2007.
22 September 2008 | News
EMC placed as market leader for info infrastructure
Gartner has placed EMC Corporation in the “Leaders” quadrant of the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Storage Professional and Support Services report.
18 September 2008 | News
R&D centre launched for social software
IBM has launched a centre for social software, which will bring together the top talent at the company who will work with university students and faculty, clients and partners, for the research, development and testing of social software.
17 September 2008 | News
India launches e-passport to boost national security
The Ministry of External Affairs and the National Informatics Centre in India have launched an e-passport programme, which will first be rolled out to diplomats and Indian officials.
16 September 2008 | News
Tamil Nadu govt launches entrepreneur site
Wait for it … it’s not a site that lets you register your micro, small or medium enterprises. It’s a site which allows you to submit a form to be given permission to then apply to register your micro, small or medium enterprise.
16 September 2008 | News
Singapore teachers get web 2.0 resources
A new joint project between the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the country’s Ministry of Education aims to provide teachers with all the information they need to leverage web 2.0 technologies for new approaches to learning.
15 September 2008 | News
US Postal Service reduces costs with transportation scenario analysis
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has realised over US$5 million in annual savings through a strategic transportation management initiative.
11 September 2008 | News
New web specs to improve interoperability
Previous better known for their competitiveness on the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) space, IBM, EMC and Microsoft have come together to provide customers with a web spec that improves the process. Known as the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), it enables applications to interoperate with multiple ECM repositories by different vendors.
10 September 2008 | News
Australian students reject paying for ‘virtual’ lectures
A student petition at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in Australia is demanding cuts in fees to match cuts in face-to-face teaching time as the university extends the virtual classroom.
9 September 2008 | News
27 schools embrace e-learning in UAE
The e-learning project will revolutionise conventional teaching techniques in favour of equipping students, teachers and even parents, with smart IT tools.
9 September 2008 | News
Queensland govt tenants offices at green building
Queensland Government’s Crime and Misconduct Commission, and Collection House will hold its offices at Brisbane’s Green Square Complex’s North Tower.
Billed as one of the world’s most environmentally friendly office developments, North Tower, part of the US$230 million Complex, has its own gas-driven power plant, was built using recycled timber and steel, and will save 1.7 million litres of water a year.
5 September 2008 | News
Chinese university deploys campus-wide wireless LAN
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications has deployed a campus-wide wireless LAN (WLAN) to its two campuses, becoming one of the few universities in China to provide complete wireless LAN coverage to every building in addition to the campus’ outdoor spaces.
4 September 2008 | News
Dubai E-government sets US$276 million revenue target
Dubai’s integrated electronic payment system (ePay) has collected US$163 million so far this year and is expected to record revenues of US$276 million by the end of 2008.
3 September 2008 | News
Hands-free access for disabled children at a UK college
National Star College is a registered charity and national independent specialist college that helps young disabled students to achieve their potential through innovative programmes of education and independence training.
2 September 2008 | News
Google launches web browser
Google is joining the browser war by launching its own application which aims at offering safer and richer web experience.
2 September 2008 | News
UAE authorities emphasise importance of green buildings
Ali bin Towaih says, “The EGBC goal this year is to align its members from the industry with local and Federal Government initiatives. The partnership will be the council’s way of conducting business with its stakeholders in addition to its role in public awareness.”
29 August 2008 | News
India launches national environment portal
Sam Pitroda, Chairman of India’s National Knowledge Commission, has launched the India Environment Portal, a one-stop information resource centre aimed to promote informed decision-making and environmentally sustainable practices.
29 August 2008 | News
Czech Senate passes e-govt bill
The Senate has approved a bill which will allow civil servants to do more of their government paperwork over the internet.
27 August 2008 | News
Free green power for Canadian government IT
Canada’s provincial governments are setting the wheels in motion to move their IT processing to greener IT data centres that are powered by renewable hydro-electricity.
26 August 2008 | News
NSW govt launches single phone number for services
The New South Wales state government in Australia has announced the launch of a single telephone number to access government services, building on the success of the Connecting NSW web site.
25 August 2008 | News
Australia to complete govt ICT review
UK-based government productivity expert set to unveil IT spending recommendations.
22 August 2008 | News
Chinese ministries push UOF document format
China’s International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Archives Administration have started to promote the Chinese-made Uniform Office Format standard.
22 August 2008 | News
Toshiba projectors break new ground
With most offices facing space constrain issues, it is useful to know that projectors fitted with Toshiba’s Extreme Short Throw Projection or ESP technology enables any presentation to be held even in the most confined area.
19 August 2008 | News
Vietnam plans schools IT push
Vietnam’s Ministry of Education has announced three major initiatives to boost the quality of school education in the country.
18 August 2008 | News
Public call offices to become info kiosks in Karnataka
Public call offices (PCOs) in the Indian state of Karnataka will be converted into electronic information and transaction kiosks with free broadband connectivity (ePCOs).
18 August 2008 | News
Claiming govt fuel rebates online
Malaysia’s government e-services portal is now working with the country’s post office to provide electronic payment of fuel rebates to citizens.
14 August 2008 | News
Singapore launches ASEAN e-govt fellowship programme
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has launched a fellowship programme for ASEAN countries in the areas of e-government.
13 August 2008 | News
E-government ideas competition launched in Europe
The Estonian government has launched an ‘Idea Competition’ with the purpose of generating new ideas for extending and improving the country’s e-services. Citizens are encouraged to contribute their ideas to the central government portal.
13 August 2008 | News
India to account for one-fifth of world’s WiMAX subscribers
A recent study puts the number of WiMAX subscribers in India at more than 27.5 million by 2012, around 20 per cent of the global figure.
12 August 2008 | News
Bangladesh boosts digital inclusion with mobile broadband pilot
A three month trial aims to demonstrate the value of high-speed internet access for the provision of a range of advanced services – including mobile health and mobile learning – in the country’s capital, Dhaka.
11 August 2008 | News
Local government takes the lead in US
Green initiatives are being given a push from the bottom upwards in Arizona. Don Stapley Supervisor of Maricopa County says, “We want counties to be a catalyst for the change in the mindset of Americans.
11 August 2008 | News
Hong Kong establishes task force on digital inclusion
The Government announced at the end of July the setting up of a Task Force on Digital Inclusion.
8 August 2008 | News
Bahrain shares e-govt plans with United Nations
A high-ranking delegation of officials from Bahrain is visiting the United Nations headquarters in New York to benchmark the Arab country’s e-government plans.
7 August 2008 | News
Remote Thai province to deploy WiMAX
WiMAX wireless broadband network will be deployed in Mae Hong Son, a mountainous province in Thailand’s northwest, bordering Myanmar.
6 August 2008 | News
Mobile computers for clumsy knowledge workers
Motorola has launched a new and improved ruggedised mobile computer, and large government organisations with clumsy remote workers stand to benefit.
6 August 2008 | News
Indian high court installs Wi-Fi
In India, the Delhi High Court has plans to install Wi-Fi connection in the court premises to promote e-Filing of cases.
5 August 2008 | News
Conferencing key govt productivity tool
African country deploys videoconferencing to increase the effectiveness of senior government official meetings.
1 August 2008 | News
IBM Research develops tech fix to aid human memory
New software helps people struggling with information overload.
1 August 2008 | News
Malaysia, Brunei collaborate for ICT
Brunei’s Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI) hosted Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC) and more than 20 other MSC status companies from Malaysia for a two day meeting. This is the second time the event has been held, with an earlier gathering in March 2007.
1 August 2008 | News
Hong Kong’s administration works under green roofs
With environmental policies in place since the 1980s, a number of Hong Kong’s government departments—Hong Kong Government’s Architectural Services Department (ASD), the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) and the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA)—have been actively pushing for green buildings.
25 July 2008 | News
Singapore's polytechnic wins green recognition
The education sector in Singapore has been using technology for environmental purposes with Singapore Polytechnic (SP) clinching top honours at the Singapore Environmental and Social Reporting Awards organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
28 September 2007 | News
Monitoring rural projects online in Malaysia
A new web portal will enable residents to access and monitor the status of rural development projects within their area
24 September 2007 | News
Best broadband in the world
Japan has the world’s fastest broadband connection
17 September 2007 | News
Estonian Tax and Customs Board offers e-Service to local authorities
The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has offered e-Service to local authorities which will allow them to make inquiries on the incomes of the taxpayers living in their area.
29 August 2007 | News
Villages in Myanmar get connected
Myanmar government plans to wire villages
29 August 2007 | News
Singapore invests in Second Life
The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has purchased real estate in the virtual world
29 August 2007 | News
Sri Lanka launches e-Champions
The program was intended to equip 30 CIOs with the skills to drive a successful e-Government
23 August 2007 | News
Philippines to execute broadband project or lose out
There is an urgency for Philippines to implement broadband project in order to compete with ASEAN neighbors
21 August 2007 | News
Australians' medicare records to go online
Abbott told a health conference in Sydney that electronic records help to streamline care for patients, from a range of health professionals.
20 August 2007 | News
Web access guidelines to aid disabled in Thailand
NECTEC in Thailand has implemented Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as an official guide to web content developers.
20 August 2007 | News
Business solutions to be deployed at the Abu Dhabi government
The Abu Dhabi System and Information Committee (ADSIC) signed an agreement to deploy Oracle’s business solutions throughout the Abu Dhabi government’s IT infrastructure.
20 August 2007 | News
New contact centre lab at Singapore’s technical education institute
Students from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) are set to hit the ground running as active contributors to the booming industries of hospitality and outsourcing, with newly-acquired practical skills in contact centre technology.
16 August 2007 | News
Australian government considers blogs
The Australian federal government plans to enter the world of blogging. The aim is to promote a more interactive approach to policy development, via an official government website.
15 August 2007 | News
Myanmar's ICT park to launch soon
Myanmar’s largest ICT park, the Yadanabon Cyber City, located at 67 kilometres east of the second largest city of Mandalay, is nearing completion.
13 August 2007 | News
Hong Kong launches new e-govt portal
A new Government portal “GovHK” (www.gov.hk) was officially launched this month to provide one-stop government online information and services to the public.
10 August 2007 | News
UK’s MoD to give soldiers electronic health records
£80 million programme to make medical records available on the battlefield.
9 August 2007 | News
Brunei schools to go mobile
IT project embarked upon by the Ministry of Education will soon make students in Brunei schools connected.
9 August 2007 | News
Qatar rolls-out new citizen service
ictQATAR and the Ministry of Interior kick off online Exit permits service.
9 August 2007 | News
Programme helps teachers make better use of ICT in learning
Twenty-eight teachers are expected to graduate from a post-graduate degree programme on integrating information and communications technology (ICT) in education this coming September.
2 August 2007 | News
Australian city rolls-out asset tracking solution
Wollongong City Council deploys enterprise asset management solution to manage the City’s A$2.5 billion worth of assets.
1 August 2007 | News
Australian government ICT spending down in 2007
Recently published ICT procurement plans for the 2007-08 financial year by federal government agencies reveals an overall drop in the volume of planned ICT projects on last year, according to a specialist government researcher.
30 July 2007 | News
E-patient records in the United Kingdom
A long term contract was issued to improve health and social care services in Guernsey, the British crown dependency.
26 July 2007 | News
Indian city development depends on e-governance
India’s Prime Minister has undelined the importance of e-government as part of the country’s roadmap for urban development.
25 July 2007 | News
Malaysian government predicted to invest in contact centres
The Malaysian authorities have been pretty half-hearted when it comes to establishing citizen-facing call centres - but that may be about to change.
20 July 2007 | News
Cairo approaches South Korea for e-govt advice
Rising connectivity in Egypt spurs discussions of national e-government infrastructure - and they have come knocking on South Korea’s door for advice.
19 July 2007 | News
Singapore backs consortium of e-govt providers
The Singapore authorities have given their blessing to a consortium of local companies aiming to export ‘made in Singapore’ e-government solutions.
17 July 2007 | News
Singapore government email, web sites go down
Now you see them, now you don’t - power outage in data centre brings down key government web sites.
8 July 2007 | News
UNESCO launches ICT-in-Education online community
In July 2007, as part of the new “Knowledge Communities” project, UNESCO Bangkok launched an online ICT-in-Education community: an interactive forum which welcomes educators, teachers, administrators and policy makers and others to share their ideas and opinions on topics relating to the use of ICT in education.
17 April 2007 | News
Government contact centres and citizen service
The humble contact centre has a growing role to play as the central hub for government-citizen interactions. Report: Raj Kumar Prasad.
30 May 2006 | News
Singapore announces US$1.27 billion e-govt masterplan
Joint announcement by Ministry of Finance and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore heralds country’s shift from e-government to ‘i-government’ (integrated government).
7 May 2006 | News
Extending the enterprise: ruggedised government computing
There is no longer a trade off between knowledge-based working and mobility as a new generation of Panasonic ruggedised notebooks find favour with government users.
10 March 2006 | News
Building government from scratch in Estonia
Ivar Tallo, Head of the e-Governance Academy in Estonia explains how the Baltic government gone all-out to streamline citizen-government interactions.
22 February 2006 | News
The view from the top: Hong Kong's Government CIO in interview
Howard Dickson, Hong Kong’s first Government Chief Information Officer, reflects on his first six months on the job. Interview: James Smith.
16 February 2006 | News
Autodesk web mapping goes open source
Design and data visualisation giant Autodesk has revolutionised the prospects for open source web mapping by making the code of its next-generation web mapping platform freely available.
9 February 2006 | News
Developing an emergency ambulance communications network in Penang
No one in the Malaysian state imagined that the first test of its ambulance communications network would be last year’s Indian Ocean Tsunami, says Dr Teo Aik Howe, Head of the Emergency Department, Penang Hospital.
7 February 2006 | News
Institutionalising public sector innovation in Singapore
The Enterprise Challenge has helped change attitudes to IT innovation in Singapore’s public service says Angela Chong, Manager, Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office. Interview: James Smith.
23 January 2006 | News
Leveraging situational intelligence in Australia
John Weippert, Director ICT, Northern Territory Police Fire and Emergency Services, explains how a combination of technology solutions has led to better resource allocation. Interview: James Smith.
5 January 2006 | News
Candid camera: CCTV and the value of situational awareness
As events in London last year have demonstrated, CCTV is a technology whose time has come. Report: James Smith.
5 December 2005 | News
Human traffic management at Singapore's National Heritage Board
Philip Chua, Chief Information Technology Officer of the National Heritage Board in Singapore, shares the experience of implementing a People Counting and Tracking System.
24 November 2005 | News
Hong Kong Companies Registry implements e-Search
Digitising company information and placing it online has cut government costs and provided a competitive boost to the territory’s businesses, writes Gordon Jones, Registrar of Companies at the Hong Kong Companies Registry.
9 November 2005 | News
Establishing a central government IT agency in the Philippines
The Philippines is the only country in ASEAN without a dedicated agency responsible for e-government and the ICT industry. That’s about to change. Report: Natasha Gonzales.
25 October 2005 | News
Managing blue light communications in Victoria
John Peoples, Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau of Emergency Services Telecommunications, shares Victoria’s blueprint for emergency services’ communications interoperability.
22 September 2005 | News
UK unveils biometric standards for ID cards
The BS ISO/IEC 19794 series of standards cover the science of using “biological properties” to identify individuals, such as fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition.
12 September 2005 | News
Developing Integrated Flagship E-Government Projects
Dr Muhammad Ghazie Ismail, Senior Vice President, Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia explains how e-government project can be integrated into a broader technology roadmap. Interview: James Smith.
2 September 2005 | News
Singapore MINDEF’s OpenOffice implementation
Dr Cheok Beng Teck, Director of the Chief Information Officer Office, at Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, explains the considerations that led to the world’s largest public sector open source desktop deployment. Interview: James Smith.
30 August 2005 | News
Government, business and community sectors need to discuss governance
Datuk Dr Mohamed Arif Nun, Chief Executive Officer of the Multimedia Development Corporation of Malaysia highlights the importance of dialogue.
7 August 2005 | News
Oracle launches e-government Centre of Excellence in Malaysia
Oracle’s regional network of E-Governance Centres of Excellence (CoE) is growing, with yesterday’s official opening of its fifth Asian solutions testbed in Putrajaya.
3 August 2005 | News
Singapore Police Force: a learning organization
Kan Siew Ning, Director of the Police Technology Department, Singapore Police Force, discusses the importance of process and organizational culture in supporting critical IT infrastructure. Interview: James Smith.
27 July 2005 | News
After the waves: the role of technology in the wake of the Tsunami
Technology has been a key component of relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka following December’s Tsunami. Report: James Smith.
19 July 2005 | News
Lightening the load: online tax filing in Thailand
Jantima Sirisaengtaksin, Chief Information Officer at Thailand’s Revenue Department, reveals the success of this year’s e-filing exercise. Interview: James Smith.
4 July 2005 | News
The struggle to meet rising citizen expectations
The publication in April of Accenture’s sixth annual report on global government service delivery highlighted a persistent gap between citizen expectations and public sector delivery. Report: James Smith.
24 June 2005 | News
Wireless healthcare in Australia
Monash Medical Centre (MMC) in Melbourne is in the middle of a wireless trial that aims to plug the gap between bedside care and the hospital’s centralised information systems. Report: James Smith.
5 June 2005 | News
e-Sri Lanka: reengineering government
Manju Hathotuwa, CEO of the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka, discusses the challenges and opportunities involved in reengineering the country’s government. Interview: James Smith.
27 May 2005 | News
Collaborative service delivery for public sector
The time is right for governments to move from agency-based services to pan-government services, says Oracle Corporation. Report: James Smith.
21 May 2005 | News
The strength of e-government planning in Korea
An assessment of the structural drivers of South Korea’s use of technology within the public sector, by Sun Phil Kwon, Department of Public Administration and Information, South Korea.
14 May 2005 | News
Singapore's JTC simplifies process complexity
Over half of JTC’s customer transactions occur online, thanks to a best practice IT project that integrated customer-facing and back office applications throughout the government agency. Report: James Smith.
29 April 2005 | News
Building a public feedback mechanism
James George Chacko, Programme Specialist with the United Nations’ Asia Pacific Development Information Programme, discusses the policy and operational advantages of listening to citizen feedback. Interview: James Smith.
21 April 2005 | News
Does civil service = poor service?
The private sector has invested heavily in improving the customer experience. Now it’s time for government agencies to play catch-up. Report: James Smith.
12 April 2005 | News
Information management supports child safety in Australia
As part of a statewide initiative to reform child protection and youth justice service delivery, the Queensland Government is looking to improve information management. Report: Raj Kumar Prasad.
6 April 2005 | News
Reducing the regulatory burden of government
The Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) has reduced the burden of compliance for enterprises in Singapore. Report: James Smith.
9 March 2005 | News
Singapore property management agency invests in GIS
JTC Corporation, a government agency that provides tenancy and lease management services to more than 7000 companies in Singapore, has signed a deal for a web-based geographical information system.
9 March 2005 | News
European citizen feedback portal launched
The European Commission has officially launched ‘Your Europe’, a comprehensive web site providing information for citizens and businesses within the EU.
7 March 2005 | News
New Zealand local government implements CRM
Manukau, New Zealand’s third largest city is three years into an ambitious programme to reinvent citizen service delivery. Report: James Smith.
7 March 2005 | News
Singapore unveils US$23.4 million information security masterplan
The Singapore government is investing S$38 million over the next three years to build Singapore’s capabilities in cyber security.
2 March 2005 | News
Indian govt IT projects to focus on PPP
Suresh Pachauri, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension, said that public private partnerships are a key factor in taking forward the spirit of e-governance.
3 February 2005 | News
Migrating citizens to e-government channels in Hong Kong
Betty Fung, Deputy CIO at the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, shares Hong Kong’s experience of getting citizens to take advantage of lower cost e-government service delivery channels. Report: James Smith.
28 January 2005 | News
Managing taxpayer data, maximising revenues
Lilia Guillermo, Chief Information Officer of the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue, explains how better management of taxpayer records led to a dramatic and immediate improvement in the agency’s bottom line. Report: James Smith.
19 January 2005 | News
‘Co-sourced’ call centre pays off for IE Singapore
Last November International Enterprise Singapore beat off competition from all-comers to clinch awards for both Singapore and the region’s ‘Best New Call Centre’. Report: James Smith.
17 December 2004 | News
Chinese e-government: too hot to handle?
Estimated at US$4.8 billion, China’s market for e-government services now depends upon the development of common national standards. Report: James Smith.
3 December 2004 | News
Introducing the CIO role in Korean government
How the CIO role proved to be a springboard for government IT success in South Korea. Report: James Smith.
26 November 2004 | News
Singapore trials biometrics for automated immigration at Changi
World’s first fully-automated check-in and immigration clearance system that uses biometric recognition technology, goes on trial.
9 November 2004 | News
E-government and the surveillance society?
The fight against terrorism, and the data requirements of e-government, raise the issue of finding the right balance between security and privacy, writes Thomas Riley.
20 October 2004 | News
E-government progress in New Zealand
By Trevor Mallard, Education Minister, New Zealand Government.
20 September 2004 | News
E-Government Rankings 2004: Asia comes first, second
Taiwan and Singapore lead the world in the latest annual E-Government Rankings. Report: James Smith.
19 August 2004 | News
Indian state aims to foster digital infrastructure with e-govt
The Kerala government has announced that it would launch a slew of IT literacy projects across the state to bridge the digital divide. Report: Edmund Tan.
11 August 2004 | News
Social security reform in China
Reforming China’s social security system poses a great administrative challenge for the government, writes Dr Mike Zhang, Jiangsu Provincial Government, China.
19 July 2004 | News
NEW RESEARCH: Asian government IT priorities revealed
New research by Public Sector Technology & Management uncovers the key priorities of Asia Pacific’s government IT community. Filed by PSTM Staff.
12 July 2004 | News
South African govt improves revenue collection through IT
South African Revenue Service saves millions of dollars with unified view of the taxpayer following a Siebel and IBM implementation managed by Accenture. Report: Edmund Tan.
22 June 2004 | News
E-government Leadership Profile: Dr Chusnul Mar'iyah
In the second of our E-government Leadership Profiles series, we shine the spotlight on Chusnul Mar’iyah, Director of the IT Tender Commission at the Logistics Division of Indonesia’s General Elections Commission (KPU). Report: Edmund Tan.
7 June 2004 | News
Japanese city deploys e-government
Kyotango City has deployed an e-Government network solution to enable sophisticated information services for its 66,000 citizens.
31 May 2004 | News
Ho Chi Minh City's online business registration project
Ho Chi Minh City’s Planning and Investment Service has successfully migrated business registration online. Report: Edmund Tan.
18 May 2004 | News
Shanghai's city websites initiative
Starting this month 18 upgraded information portals providing information about government policies will be available to local residents. Report: Edmund Tan.
6 May 2004 | News
Canada remains e-government leader
Canada is top dog in the world of e-government for the fourth successive year - though Singapore, Australia and Japan are making great strides forward. Report: Edmund Tan.
4 May 2004 | News
Enterprise Architecture for e-government
By Dr John Gøtze, Enterprise architect, IT Strategic Office, National IT and Telecom Agency, Denmark.
27 April 2004 | News
Chip-based secure govt in Israel
Israeli government secures access to the government network with card technology. Report: Edmund Tan.
23 April 2004 | News
British police forces deploy new handsets
Seven British Police Forces have decided to jointly deploy a new digital handset to their officers on the national public safety network. Report: Edmund Tan.
14 April 2004 | News
Hong Kong's blueprint for public sector reform
We need to freely discuss ideas on facilitating a more efficient and effective delivery of services to the public, says Michael Suen, Acting Chief Secretary for Administration, Hong Kong.
12 April 2004 | News
Canadian city invests in software to improve efficiency
The City of Calgary has chosen to upgrade to an enterprise software platform executives say will be supported for the long term and will provide a base on which to add greater functionality down the road. Report: Edmund Tan.
7 April 2004 | News
London's wirelessly-controlled CCTV
Westminster City Council is set to transform the heart of London into a Wireless City. Report: James Smith.
25 March 2004 | News
Bahrain's national e-govt infrastructure & Linux
The Government of Bahrain’s Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) is to build its national e-government infrastructure on the open standard Linux platform. Report: Edmund Tan.
19 March 2004 | News
eDubai: a conversation with Omar Bin Sulaiman
Dubai will become the Silicon Valley of the Middle East, supported by one of the world’s most advanced e-govt infrastructures. Edmund Tan spoke with the CEO of Dubai Internet City.
24 February 2004 | News
From disappearing boundaries to security governance
Two seemingly contradictory movements have recently appeared on the IT landscape, writes Philippe Langlois.
17 February 2004 | News
Singapore armed forces optimise procurement processes
Automated and integrated procurement process reduces costs and reaps greater efficiencies at Singapore’s Ministry of Defence. Reporting: Edmund Tan.
5 February 2004 | News
Secure e-government: a European approach
The drive to ‘joined-up-government’ can expose government IT systems to external threats. Germany is trying to reconcile the two through education. Report: Edmund Tan.
28 January 2004 | News
New Zealand police improve emergency response times
The New Zealand Police have implemented a new communications system to improve the flow of emergency calls to officers in the field. Reporting: Edmund Tan.
22 January 2004 | News
Myanmar government committed to IT development
By Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, Government of Myanmar, and Chairman of the Myanmar Computer Science Development Council.
20 January 2004 | News
New Zealand's Centre for Advanced Government Applications
The Information Technology Association of New Zealand (ITANZ) has released proposals to establish a knowledge centre to fuel the development and commercialisation of ‘Made in New Zealand’ e-government applications. Report: Edmund Tan.
28 December 2003 | News
Moving your Malware strategy out of the dark ages
It’s time to review your organisation’s approach to external threats to your network, says Greg Day.
15 October 2003 | News
UAE Ministry of Labour launches SmartForms portal
The United Arab Emirates’ new SmartForms portal will streamline the user experience and reform internal processes. Report: Edmund Tan.
30 September 2003 | News
Asia's top 20 e-government nations
A new study of global e-government undertaken by researchers at Brown University has ranked the world’s 198 countries for e-government capability, with surprising results. Reporting: Edmund Tan.
23 August 2003 | News
E-government projects update in Myanmar
Myanmar progresses with e-government trial. Reporting: Edmund Tan.
3 May 2003 | News
Glasgow pioneers e-govt call centre
Glasgow City Council implements one of the UK’s first local government multi-media contact centres. Report: Edmund Tan.
7 April 2003 | News
Australia's Centrelink: the agency for government service delivery
By Hank Jongen, National Manager, Communication, Media and Marketing, Centrelink, Australia.
17 March 2003 | News
Australian Tourist Commission boosts storage infrastructure
Australia’s Tourist Commission improves business responsiveness and lowers downtime with disk and tape library solution. Report: Edmund Tan.
11 February 2003 | News
Germany's BundOnline 2005 initiative
By Otto Schily, Federal Minister of the Interior, Germany.
17 January 2003 | News
How Austrade overhauled its global IT system
Austrade required a global IT infrastructure to support a highly mobile user population operating in 61 countries. Report: Edmund Tan.
19 April 2002 | News
San Diego Port District streamlines budgeting process
Government entity responsible for San Diego’s harbour, airport and public lands uses web-based management solution to help manage quarter billion dollar budget. Report: James Smith.
30 August 2001 | News
Asian governance and the 'Knowledge Economy'
A more knowledge-intensive approach to governance will redefine how the public sector relates internally to its own agencies and its own employees, writes James Smith.
6 July 2001 | News
Civic pride driving China e-govt development
Estimated at US$4.8 billion, China’s market for e-government services depends upon the development of common national standards. Report: James Smith.
15 June 2001 | News
UAE e-govt moves to next level
The United Arab Emirates’ e-government initiative has moved into its second phase where it will focus on managing the government’s financial information. Report: Edmund Tan.
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