ICT the driving force for more responsive, efficient governments

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

Dominic Scott, who is in charge of US-based Cisco's public-sector business in Asia, told me the other day that information and communications technology (ICT) will make governments more responsive, efficient and transparent in coming years. As their routine tasks are being taken over by new technology, Scott said, government officials will have more time to focus on important issues such as economic competitiveness and social inclusion.

Published on October 21, 2007

Scott cited the governments of Singapore and India as examples of countries that have designed their ICT platforms to increase national competitiveness and social inclusion respectively. In the case of Singapore, the goal is to turn the island republic into a high-end intelligent network by 2015 by harnessing the country's ICT platform to develop a "new" economy driven by services in the digital media, leisure/tourism, bio-medical/healthcare and educational fields.

Singapore had previously thrived on electronics and other hi-tech manufacturing industries. However, most of these industries have now relocated to China where the wages are much lower.

As part of a government-led development strategy, Singapore is investing heavily in the upgrading of its ICT infrastructure. For instance, businesses and virtually all households will soon have fibre optics, allowing Internet connections at very high speeds, like 100 megabits-per-second.

This should then lead to a surge in innovations in the sectors that the government hopes will form the new cornerstones of its economy.

For instance, fibre optics to all homes will likely foster creativity and help the island republic thrive by developing new digital content, such as computer games and movies. In tourism, the government earlier offered numerous incentives to the private sector to invest in the opening of two new casinos, which are now under construction.

Once these casinos are operational, the ICT platform can be used to enhance their competitiveness in terms of personalised customer service. For instance, once you get to Changi Airport, you may receive an electronic card for your hotel room that could double as your pass into one of the casinos. Such a card would also store specific data about your preferences obtained from your previous trips to Singapore so as to provide more personalised hotel and tourism services.

As for India, the country's ICT platform targets social inclusion. Due to India's high economic growth over the past several years, large numbers of Indians have migrated from the countryside to big cities for a better life and economic opportunities, leaving many rural societies on the fringe.

As a result, the government has adopted a plan to extend some services into the countryside by investing in a new high-speed network that could connect 100,000 or more villages where kiosks will be set up to provide registration and other basic bureaucratic services so that people do not have to commute over long distances.

The government will be the sole investor in the network during the first several years, after which it will form partnerships with private investors in each of the areas so that local entrepreneurs may invest in extending the range of services beyond those provided by the government. For instance, wedding licenses issued by the government may lead to additional services such as catering for wedding receptions.

In the case of Thailand, electronic government services are also expanding rapidly, with the revenue and customs departments among the front runners. At present, up to 70 per cent of Thai income-tax filings are done online and a large amount of import and export cargo is processed via the paperless e-customs service.

In terms of international competitiveness, Thailand is somewhere in the middle of developing economies, currently ranked 35th in the world, whereas its ICT network readiness is ranked 37th, reflecting a close relationship between the two.

In many places around the world, government services are becoming ubiquitous due to the unrelenting expansion of delivery channels, which now include the Internet, phone, fax, face-to-face service, kiosks and text messaging.

ICT has also led to an unstoppable flow of information in several societies, which has resulted in greater government transparency and accountability (for example, China's recent avian-flu case) as well as citizens' freedoms and liberties.