Nation to benefit from e-government

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Ambassador Chen Lien Gene, Secretary General of Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF).

The day-long event, jointly sponsored by the governments of St. Kitts-Nevis and Republic of China on Taiwan, provided an opportunity for decision and policy makers and practitioners in public and private sectors from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states to share and learn from each other’s experiences.

Ambassador Chen Lien Gene, Secretary General of Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) said the purpose of the seminar was to help Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, especially the small-island countries, to establish e-government systems and help them improve their government’s efficiency to compete in the international arena.

“St. Kitts-Nevis is the most successful example to us for the ICT project in the Caribbean region. This seminar is very timely because the utilization of advanced technology is the current world trend and St. Kitts has started the trend in the region and is fully prepared to maintain it.

“If this e-government system is properly utilized it will not only help the government but would also benefit the private sector businesses in challenging themselves to sharpen their ability to effectively compete in the global arena. St. Kitts-Nevis is off to a good start and will be yielding some fruitful results in the near future.

“It is hoped that after the implementation of the e-government system and electronic application, the government of St. Kitts-Nevis will not only improve its internal administrative efficiency, but also enhance its transparency of public information sources. It is also anticipated that there will be a number of business opportunities for the Information Technology sector in St. Kitts-Nevis in the future.”

Ambassador Chen noted that his country has sent four technical experts to St. Kitts to help establish the ICT Centre and also assist the Ministry of Information Technology in implementing the systems. He indicated that collection of information in various areas of government is highly critical at this point and added that the next step would be for representatives to analyse how to apply the information in their respective countries.

The ICDF Secretary General informed that three government portal sites and one system of human resource have been established in the e-government system and two more portal sites and a system for hospitals are to be established in the immediate future.