eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Aftermath
Last Wednesday the World Bank eDevelopment Thematic Group held a workshop on “The Singapore Experience” – how the small country Singapore achieved the transformation to become economically that successful and one of the countries with the most government services accessible by mobile phone or internet.
The notes from the different speakers can be accessed under the following links:
The reason for the whole eTransformation was the desire to attract foreign investment on the one hand, and the will to foster public construction to provide public housing for the citizens. This led to improvements in regulations and the attempt in many sectors to hide the complexity of the government bureaucracy away from the individuals and companies, providing the services of many agencies on an online platform.
The speakers came mostly from the private sector, as Singapore managed its transformation mostly by forming public-private partnerships, with companies providing government services. These companies have gained a lot of experience now, and also consult other nations all over the world on their strategy to implement eServices.
One key aspect of Singapore’s eTransformation was the presence of a long term vision concerning ICT which was in place for 20 years already. The vision was created with changes in technology and administration processes in mind – so these changes didn’t render the vision useless, but were rather absorbed by it.
Another substantial point in Singapore’s eTransformation process was the persistent work with all stakeholders to have everybody on the “same page” of the process. The different agencies involved in the provided services were trained to implement ICT and to share data digitally.
All in all the event gave a complete and interesting insight into the development of the ICT strategy of Singapore and showcased a role model for other nations aiming to focus on the provision of eServices to their citizens. Also it was encouraging to hear about Singapore’s interests in helping and supporting other nations.
eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Aftermath
was published on 08.10.2009 by Florian Sturm. It files under global
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eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Part 2
Notes from the World Bank eDevelopment Thematic Group workshop on “The Singapore Experience“ on 30 September in Washington DC.
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Sharing on Government Transformation by Crimsonlogic Pte Ltd
Topic: eGovernance to yield greater socio-economic impact
Speaker: Mr. TAN Sian Lip, Vice President
Public private partnership company
- built by Singapore government
- run as a private company
- providing government services
Singapore Trade Facilitation Journey
On the last 20 years
- Almost everybody in the trade-sector changed their technology
- Administrative roles changed in the last 20 years
- The public didn’t experience any change
Tradenet
- Harmonizing trade admission procedures for companies evolved
- “TradeNet -World’s First Nationwide Electronic Data Interchange System”
- Minimizing processing time for admission to 1 minute
- there exist 2 business case studies, it has been well documented
- many international partnerships, facilitating trade on ports worldwide
Singapore eJudiciary
LawNet
- Platform for processing legal information
- Keeping data digital
- Less hardcopies
- Higher clearance rate
- Cases take shorter time
- Transparency through online availability of cases
- good rating in international comparison
Lessons learnt – Principles of eGovernment
- The application of IT to transform the way governments work, to make them friendlier and more effective
- It is not (just) a large portfolio of technology projects
- It is a large ongoing program of activities involving public administrators and technologists in rethinking how government & the public can work together, and then applying technology to effect the changes
Infrastructure: e-things change all the time, there is always something better
- you should plan carefully so that changes don’t destroy your system, but can be absorbed
Constraints:
- There are never enough resources to design & build all possible eServices
It’s important to build the eServices which have the biggest impact on citizens and business
Partnerships between governments and private companies in developing and implementing services on a risk-and investment-sharing basis
Q & A:
Is there a legalframework for exchangig data online?
- electronic transactions act – very broad
- Computer misuse act
- In Singapore PKI is not so common
- Electronic banking has existed for years and transactions not signed with PKI
Is there competition for IDA in Singapore?
- yes, there is international competition, other companies are bidding for contracts too, but so far no success
Who selects what applications have the highest impact on citizens and businesses?
- The specific agencies decide what the governmental agenda should be
- Then they have to fight for the budget
Common components for eServices?
- Governance is primary
- Architecture is handmade into it
- Basic network, basic logging mechanism, web service gateways, portal infrastructure should be common
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Sharing on Government Transformation by NCS Pte Ltd
Topic: Effective Development – Why is there a need for Public Services Infrastructure (PSi)
Speaker: Mr. NG Beng Lim, General Manager
Company: NCS – national computer system
- providing government services
Key concerns in Singapore:
- economic growth
- education
- utilization of resources
- making society a better place
- how to use IT to promote these issues?
Areas to address:
- governance, administration
- services for citizens
- integrating IT into society
- better management of resources
- developing economy based on IT – in the long term
Every country has to have a clear masterplan what to do with IT
- But how to come from the masterplan to an implementation and successful rollout?
Transformation of IT during the 80s and 90s to today
- Nowadays the prerequisites for successful eServices rollout are ideal
- In early 2000 – government in Singapore started Public Services Infrastructure
- Interface for people to interact with the government
- open infrastructure to more providers – including the private sector
Public Services Infrastructure Components:
- Government Network
- Common Data Centre
- Application Infrastructure
- Common Desktop Services
Features:
- Single sign on
- SMS, email gateway
- personalisation
- service delivery framwork
- ePayment
- Orchestration
- multilingual
Results:
- PSi was started 10 years ago
- Today: SHINE (Service Wide Hosting Environment) by NCS
- Billing model: Subscription-based
- Evens out peak CPU utilisation
- SHINE: Hosting, services and storing on demand
NCS – in the mean time a lot of experience in eGovernment & National ICT Planning
Q & A:
Does the government have a centralised architecture?
- Yes, in Singapore the government came up with a centralized infrastructure
What about security standards?
- The IT infrastructure has to come with an own security framework already
Key objecticves in terms of consilidating the data?
- Make people use the system
- “Selling” tools to the ministries
Many agencies – one government. Government has to have the oversight, but agencies have to have the freedom to act on themselves.
Is there a trend for re-centralization?
- It’s technologically possible
- Is it possible to monitor all local spots where services are running?
eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Part 2
was published on 30.09.2009 by Florian Sturm. It files under global
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Part 1
Notes from the World Bank eDevelopment Thematic Group workshop on “The Singapore Experience“ on 30 September in Washington DC.
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Welcome Remarks by Mr. Deepak Bhatia, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, GICT and Ms. Angela PNG, Deputy Director of International Organisation, International Enterprise Singapore
Knowledge sharing event – how Singapore became a leader in eGovernment
Singapore ranked first in eGovernment ranking in four consecutive years, global competitiveness index: 3rd
One factor for that – policy to utilize ICTs in national development
A lot of problems to overcome – e.g. technophobia
Today: ICT masterplan, holistic
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Opening Remarks by Mr. Sun Vithespongse, Southeast Asia Executive Director and Mr. Mohsen Khalil, Director, Global ICT Department (TBC)
Singapore:
- small country with no resources
- therefore it has to be developed in ICTs to become efficient
World Bank group is the biggest sponsor in eGovernment – and has experiences large successes
World Bank should keep on the work, despite the financial crisis
Development in the industry
- a lot of innovation is happening in the developing world
- south-to-north and south-to-south developments
What can ICTs be useful for?
- Powerful transformation forces turning around the way we do business
The integral structure of of governement and important private sectors and their cooperation is very important
Harnessing the power of ICTs is a government and behavioural issue – rather than a technological issue
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Sharing on Government Transformation by IDA International
Topic: Singapore’s ICT Journey – The Past 30 years and the Next 5 years.
Speaker: Mr. YEONG Wee Tan, Deputy Director
ICT sector in Singapore
- 40 bn US$
- 140 000 IT professionals
Six national ICT plans
- Computerisation
- Communication
- Connectivity
- Convergence
- Connectedness
- Creation
It’s necessary to start a dialog on learned lessons – between Singapore and the other nations
A lot of working with foreign agencies
IDA International – Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
- partnering with other governments, sharing lessons of Singapore and advising them
- not a vendor
- living their lessons
- helping to integrate ICTs
Sharing lessons on different levels
- Infrastructure
- Human capacity – The countries need to have sustainable human capital to carry on with their policies
- Industry and Government
- Governance – which legal framework is necessary
- Outcomes – What are the aims?
Within 15 minutes you can register a Singaporian company around the world
GrBiz – Government to Business open platform
We want to get people used to make everything “e”
- There are 200 government services available on a handheld in Singapore
- Also as a tourist you get all these services available
- A lot of learning devices for schools – “Future schools in Singapore” – to be on the forefront of development
- Also health care projects
Government must evolve to be an open ecosystem
Together with agencies like the World Bank we can teach also other countries how to integrate ICTs in their services and transform their operations
eTransformation can create a better world through ICT
Q & A:
Question about public trust – everything is digital now, do people trust in the system?
- Everybody has one number – took quite a while to harmonize that
- In the beginning of the journey there were problems, but in the mean time people have accepted it
- There is a lot of public consultation
Infrastructure is important but education too – how to talk to ministries trying to prioritize?
Cross agency information sharing?
- There always political trouble – but the important point is communicate, communicate, communicate the overall goal to everbody
- It’s important to bring the stakeholders together and convince them
What motivates Singapore for international coperation? Typical cooperation between the agency and another country?
- One strategic plan in the Singapore ICT plan is internationalization
- It’s also an export industry, not everything for free – but not a typical consultor, we are there to help people get on the IT journey
- It’s important for us to give back to the world
- We act like a trusted adviser to the government
Do you have an administrative reform plans for the country and how is it linked to the ICT plan?
- Definitely, everything is balanced between administrative reforms, governments processes, … to have everybody on the same page, it’s still ongoing
Comments:
It’s very encouraging to see this international exchange, Singapore is currently working on a P2P portal for government transformation
Sometimes you need to break established ways of work and act outside the framework
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Sharing on Government Transformation by novaCITYNETS Pte Ltd
Topic: e-Transformation to a First World City
Speaker: Ms. Joyce WONG, EVP
Singapore in the 1960 had big problems – a developing country
- GDP per capita: 427$
Several measures to overcome the situation
- Public housing
- Attracting foreign investment – to create jobs
Making Singapore a good place for investment
- Infrastructure improvement – water, electricity, roads, …
- Well thought our master plan
- Constant reform
- Concept plan = blueprint
- Master plan = vision
- Construction = concrete measures
- Twenty years plan
A lot of construction activities
Many issues faced when dealing with construction permits from different agencies
Introduction of COREnet
- streamline and reengineer the processes in the construction industry
- e-submission system launched in 2001
- business re-engineering, project design, training, industry promotion, …
- Interface for businesses to interact with the government
- Variety of agencies are hidden behind the online portal – single point of access
- big success story, companies make use of it, big increase in efficiency
In 2009
- 16 participating agencies
- 700 application forms (2001) to 231
- 30% improvement in turnaround time
Information on eTransformation in Sri Lanka
- All building blocks for a strong eGovernment solution were not in place – when NCS came to rescue
- Trying to replicate the experience of Singapore – but adapt it to the situation in Sri Lanka
eTG workshop on The Singapore Experience – Part 1
was published on by Florian Sturm. It files under global
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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