Indonesian Province Launches IT Literacy Programme

By Rahul Joshi | 16 December 2011

Riau provincial government in central Sumatra has initiated a programme to introduce IT to children across its primary schools. It is an extension of a project already in place in other parts of Indonesia since 2008.

The “KidSmart” project, in collaboration with IBM, aims to teach children children essential IT skills through specialised software and custom-designed terminals. In total, 250 primary schools in Indonesia are participating in the programme.
KidSmart also involves training the teachers in using the software and hardware tools, and 300 teachers across Indonesia have been trained so far.
The programme was inaugurated in Riau province at the city of Pekanbaru on the 7th of December, with the Governor of Riau HM Rusli Zainal, Riau Police Chief, Mayor of Pekanbaru Syamsurizal, and President-Director of IBM Indonesia, Suryo Suwignjo, in presence.
“For teachers, mastering the technology is extremely important, so that they can operate it and implement it into their daily lives, and also serve as examples for their students,” said Governor Zainal, as Mayor Syamsurizal inaugurated the cyber-technology training centre for teachers.
The teachers are provided basic knowledge about the internet, word processing, spreadsheets and presentations techniques, and participate in a short workshop on crime prevention.

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Vietnamese City Unveils ICT Transformation Plan

By Rahul Joshi | 21 December 2011

Da Nang, a city of nearly a million residents in central Vietnam, has embarked on a comprehensive modernisation programme that will see it become Vietnam’s first “e-city” by 2020, according to Pham Kim Son, Director of the Danang Department of Information and Communications.

Under a decision made in mid-December, Da Nang city government has resolved to become Vietnam’s first “e-city”, in which ICT will be applied to all major areas of governance including health-care, citizen services and transportation.
According to Vietnam’s Potential Competitiveness Index - Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s overall survey of economic governance among the country’s 63 provinces - Da Nang Province has ranked among the top five since 2008, and is therefore seen as a key base from which to propel the country into a more competitive stratum.
According to the official report, the e-city programme will “be implemented in two phases with six main tasks, including an e-city model and an overall legal frame for such tasks, IT application models among enterprises and the community, and IT infrastructure improvement among others.”
The first phase, the report says, will be undertaken from 2012 to 2015, in which the focus will be on IT infrastructure and human resource development. The second phase, lasting from 2015 to 2020, will concentrate on connecting government agencies together, with the aim to spearhead the economy using IT.
The city has been involved in rapid modernisation this year, with critical infrastructure pertaining to modern e-government models, resource management and allocation, and environmental friendliness already in the works. The city also plans to be one of the “Eco2 Cities”, which conform to sustainability and efficiency standards suggested by the World Bank.

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Malaysia banks on ICT to meet 2020 development goals

By Robin Hicks | 23 February 2010

Malaysia’s Government CIO has hailed ICT as a “key enabler” to fulfil Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s mission to transform Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. Speaking at the FutureGov Forum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (23rd February 2010), Dr Nor Aliah Zahri, Government CIO and Deputy Director General of the Malaysian Administration Modernisation & Planning Unit (MAMPU), said that the 2020 goal was a “reasonable target to attain”.

“We acknowledge that we face significant challenges,” Dr Aliah told delegates. “But we are seeing positive change as Malaysia continues to transform into an information-centred economy by focusing on innovation, value and high skills.”

Malaysia’s National Broadband Plan, which aims to see household broadband internet penetration rise from 26 per cent to 50 per cent by the end of this year (2010), will play a big part in connecting the country of 23 million people, Dr Aliah noted. If this target is met – Malaysia’s GDP, which has been sluggish during the global economic downturn, could grow by 1.2 per cent, she said.

The Government Transformation Roadmap Plan, introduced this year to improve government services, will help keep the 2020 vision on track, Dr Aliah said. “This is a bold and unprecedented plan for every ministry to ensure that every citizen enjoys the fruits of a growing nation,” she said.

Part of the plan is “Connected government”, an initiative launched in 2007 to boost information sharing, integration and interoperability among government agencies, and strengthen and unify ICT infrastructure. “We want to move towards zero face-to-face interaction for citizens for selected agencies as more services move online,” said Dr Aliah.

Another strategy has been to focus on a few “high-impact projects” that will deliver immediate results. One of the most successful to date is MySMS, which gives Malaysians one number – 15888 - to text government with complaints or queries and receive news about new services. The service already has 1.4 million users.

Similar in aim to MySMS is MyID, which enables Malaysians to use a single reference number when dealing with government agencies. Launched in January 2010, 760 services have been launched which use the MyID service to date.

Dr Aliah explained that the progress of these projects, and the public sector as a whole, will be closely monitored by giving the highest performing agencies a “Public Sector Trust Mark” which citizens or businesses can use to gauge transparency.

“If these initiatives are wholeheartedly embraced, the hope of the Malaysian government is that we will move towards a more systemic excellence culture,” she said.

“Malaysia’s public sector will continue to transform to deliver higher performance to meet the 2020 goal. But we still need to change the way the civil service operates. E-government in Malaysia is well advanced, and it should be an integral component of a much broader mission to deliver the transformation agenda.”

Malaysia was ranked 32nd in the United Nations E-Government Survey 2010 last month, moving up two places on its 2008 rank. Malaysia is the fifth highest placed Asian country in the rankings, behind Japan, Bahrain, Singapore and South Korea.By Robin Hicks | 23 February 2010

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Malaysia: ICT education for a “creative society”

Malaysia Higher Education Ministry is studying how to develop a creative and innovative Malaysian society through human capital development.

The ministry is planning to work with Microsoft in unearthing creative and innovative students of tertiary institutions in the area of ICT and with Shell Malaysia in energy saving.

Its minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the study to produce creative, innovative human capital was started last year by the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS), Universiti Teknologi Mara and Malaysian Design Council. This study will be looking at programmes by government agencies that could contribute to the creation of “innovative human capital”.

“We hope when the study is completed, expected this year, we will be able to draw up a national blueprint in this context,” he said. “Malaysia wants to move away from a resource-based economy to one generated by innovations with the existence of an innovative society, which will indicate that the country has reached developed-nation status,” he said.

Nordin said creativity and innovations were vital for a country and studies had shown that technological innovations contributed to higher productivity, Gross Domestic Product, economic growth and improved standard of living. (By Alice Kok | 12 May 2009)

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