The 2006 Asia-Pacific Public Services Summit, jointly organized
by China's State Council Informatization Office (SCITO) and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in collaboration with
Cisco Systems, opened today in Beijing.
The conference, which has visited Beijing three times since
2004, is entitled "Information Sharing?-- The Next Challenge
in Realizing Cross-Agency Collaboration." It has attracted more
than 200 senior e-government officials from around the world to
discuss the obstacles and solutions to building a public service
platform aimed at realizing information sharing.
Speaking to the summit, Chen Dawei, vice minister of SCITO,
pointed out that the 2006-2020 State Informatization Development
Strategy and State E-government General Framework promote
e-government as a tool for increasing government efficiency through
the improvement of public service quality, the reinforcement of
social administration and the strengthening of integrated
surveillance and macro-control. He observed that since last year's
summit China had achieved numerous advancements in e-government
while gaining experience in cross-agency collaboration and
information sharing.
However, he said, it is still important for China, as a
developing country, to exchange ideas with others, as the country's
e-government services remained insufficient to reach all members of
society due to the evolving informatization process. At the same
time China's experiences could greatly benefit other countries in
discovering their own e-government solutions.
Mr. Renaud Meyer, deputy resident representative of the UNDP
China Office, noted that his group fostered human development to
empower men and women to build better lives in China. As the UN's
development network, UNDP drew on a world of experience to assist
China in developing its own solutions for the country's development
challenges.
In recognition of the important role that Information
Communication Technology can play in enhancing development, the
UNDP works closely with governments, civil society organizations
and the private sector in partnerships to ensure that the benefits
of new technologies, especially in information and communication,
are available to all.
Sharing is an important aspect of modern life and has extensive
influence in facilitating social development. When speaking of
tangible goods many people are actually referring to less of a
share per person.
However, with information on the other hand, getting more people
involved means more information for everyone assuming that data is
being unselfishly shared among many. Mr. Thomas Lam, president of
China Operations, Cisco Systems, commented, "Cisco is a company
that values sharing. Cisco is glad to see people sharing
information via the Internet and is eager to share its technology
and past experience with everyone.
"Co-sponsoring the summit for the third time this year, Cisco is
pleased by both the active participation of e-government officials
and experts from so many countries and the acceleration of
e-government business around the region," said Mr Lam.
"Cisco pledges to continue to make its contribution to
e-government development in these countries and expects that these
and similar efforts by everyone involved will lead to better, more
efficient and more prosperous societies across Asia," he added.
This year's discussions focus on the fundamental issues
regarding the implementation of information sharing. The summit
offers participants the opportunity to build upon last year's talks
focusing on agency collaboration and further development of the
tools and strategies necessary for the advancement of
e-government.
Topics include the processes and architecture for information
sharing, infrastructure and content investment approaches,
strategies and standards to ensure trust and security, shared
service models for citizen services and internal administration,
planning and managing critical scenarios for information
sharing.
Key guest speakers are Andrew Griffith, director general of
planning and reporting, Service Canada; Jane Treadwell, chief
information officer (CIO) of Victoria, Australia; William Hioe,
former senior director of Information Communications Development
authority of Singapore; Larry Knafo, vice CIO of New York City, US;
Yannis Pyrgiotis, former executive director and chief technical
officer of the Organizing Committee of the 2004 Athens Olympic
Games and Christian Rupp, federal executive secretary for the
e-Government initiative of the Austrian Government. Small group
discussions are scheduled to follow each of the talks encouraging
interaction between the visiting experts and their Chinese
counterparts.
The summit is much appreciated by e-government officials from
China as well as other Asian countries. Speaking to the reporter,
Mr. Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera, commissioner of the Philippines
e-Government Development Group, said speeches at the summit were
"highly enlightening". "We have a lot to learn from the countries
which have done well in the field of e-government," he said.
(China.org.cn by Wind Gu August 1, 2006)
