Borderless Government

Sunday, 5 February 2012

RESOURCE CENTRE

Tax and Revenue Management: A government’s lifeblood

IT has provided the opportunities for governments to remodel the entire process of tax collection over the last decade. It is, however, a continuously evolving process and governments the world over need to constantly upgrade their tax systems to optimise their revenue workflows.

Unlocking Public Value

A recent SAP study confirmed that those organisations which adopt best practices in the areas of scope and adoption, process standardisation, technology and customer governance, do perform better, and do so as their best practice maturity increases.

Governments and Socialising

The advent of social media has seen governments hopping onto the bandwagon in a bid to further engage citizens.

By Kelly Ng | 8 February 2010 | Permanent link | 0 comments

Gone are the days when government could sit behind fortified walls, with the only outgoing messages borne by official messengers and incoming information conveyed by appointed leaders. Today, a citizen can tweet the Prime Minister anytime of the day and an entrepreneur can download a city map and mix it with his own data. Web2.0 provides governments with the opportunity to break the ice for real engagement and the sharing of data with citizens and businesses.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is a strong believer in being an open government. CIO Dr Sung Jung-hee told FutureGov that Seoul’s Gov 2.0 strategy is one of ‘open data, open spending, open expertise and peer review, open policy making and open problem-solving on an open platform’.

Speaking at the recent FutureGov Forum Singapore (26-27 January), Dr Sung impressed all with the extent to which her government is interacting with citizens. Seoul Oasis, a web site for the public to submit ideas to the local authorities, receives 25 new ideas a day. The Cyber Policy Forum has held more than 170 discussions, with the option for citizens to create new discussions of interest. And e-Poll, available both online and via mobile, lets citizens give instant feedback before the formulation of major policies.

The torrent of questions posed to Sung showed clear interest from other Asian governments represented to be more approachable. As I caught up with delegates over coffee – many from the Singapore public sector (including the Ministry of Home Affairs) – they spoke of plans to engage citizens and research has been underway on what works best in different contexts.

Melting the barrier between government and citizen not only eases the inflow of citizens’ feedback but opens the public sector data bank for all to access. Open government data is a hot topic now – Laurence Millar blogged about it and Robin Hicks reported on it. Naturally, it was brought up several times over the two days.

Adrian Goh, Assistant Director, iGovernment Planning & Service Delivery Division, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore gave the example of the collaboration between Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Google. “LTA provides traffic information and incidents, which are mashed up on Google Maps. Commuters and motorists in Singapore can access this information online or via mobile and better plan their trips in advance to prevent jams,” he said.

As governments unlock data to businesses and maybe citizens, other questions will emerge. Victor Lam, Assistant Government CIO of Hong Kong, asked Goh if Google pays for the traffic information provided by LTA. Questions around privacy and information security cropped up too.

I for one welcome the concept of a borderless government with open arms. It is 35 minutes past six and time to head home now. Google Maps tells me it is going to be a smooth ride back. Thank you LTA!