Summit 2011: Conversations for better "Connectedness"

By Clarice Africa | 17 October 2011 | Permanent link | 0 comments

It definitely was a privilege to be in the FutureGov Summit, to have an opportunity to engage high-level delegates from over 20 countries in thought-pondering conversations about their modernisation initiatives and development goals , and also co-facilitate the Digital Inclusion table with Abul Rizvi, Deputy Secretary of Australia’s Department of Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy, has given me the perfect vantage point to watch how regions are developing and how different they are from each other– basically, I had the best front row seat to the region’s modernisation development and it doesn’t get any better than that.

The FutureGov Summit is the longest-running and most prestigious, by invitation only, public sector modernisation event in Asia. For more than seven years, the Summit has brought together senior-level decision makers from across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America to share experiences and insights on public sector modernisation.

On the Digital Inclusion table, Haiyan Qian, Director of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management at the United Nations (UN), shared to us how countries can leverage ICT, most especially today’s mobile technologies, to improve public governance and to increase efficiency in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

“Digital Divide is a major hurdle in overall national development, however with today’s innovative technologies, this gives us an opportunity to address this issue,” she said.

Early this year, the UN declared internet access as a human right. This includes free information flow and as well as access to infrastructure—cables, modems, computers and software.

It likewise encouraged states to include Internet literacy skills in school curricula, and support similar learning modules outside of schools.

True enough, and based from our conversations with the delegates in the Digital Inclusion table, governments at present are headed to that direction.

Delegates from Vietnam, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia shared their accomplishments in their use of telecentres to make internet more accessible to citizens located in rural areas.

On a personal note, I was very much interested to learn how these telecentres (or community e-centres for some) can be self-sustaining, so when our delegates shared how their telecentres are growing, I eagerly listened as they talked about how their telecentres are “revolutionising” the services they offer (e-health, training,etc) so they can generate revenue and be more sustainable and not rely on government funds.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) was also a topic which was of great interest with the delegates. Delegates from Bahrain, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Pakistan, and Australia shared their respective experiences and challenges in leveraging the NBN to better streamline public services.

It was also very interesting how delegates from countries with nearly 80-90 per cent internet penetration rate are currently using NBN and their plans in a few year’s time – South Korea for example, is leveraging their high-speed broadband internet access to provide telemedicine in rural areas.

On imparting the benefits on NBN, Abul Rizvi shared this video with me on how the NBN can transform day-to-day living, I found this very interesting, and hope readers of this blog will do too.

Overall, the event was a huge success. The use of IDT tables encouraged more in-depth conversations with the delegates and the speakers to share best practices and lessons learned with each other – with some delegates approaching me to schedule one-on-one meetings with speakers/ fellow delegates for more detailed and technical conversations and consultations.

With the success of this year’s biggest public sector modernisation event, I can’t wait to find out what surprises and learnings are in store for next year’s FutureGov Summit!

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