e-government

It’s all about E-Government!

Government.com 

The swift development of information technology has brought about a far-reaching revolution of our style of living, and greatly powered the economic and social development.  As the principal application in the major areas of information highway concentration, the E-Government has attracted a wide attention around the globe. It may be said that the government informatization has become the prerequisite for economical and social informatization, and E-Government will be one of significant elements affecting core competence of developing countries like India.

“E-Government” refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing, that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions.

E-Governance and e-Government are increasingly being emphasized as ways for governments to strengthen good governance. If implemented strategically e-governance can not only improve efficiency, accountability and transparency of government processes, but it can also be a tool to empower citizens by enabling them to participate in the decision-making processes of governments - Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme

Traditionally, the interaction between a citizen or business and a government agency took place in a government office. With emerging information and communication technologies it is possible to locate service centers closer to the clients. Such centers may consist of an unattended kiosk in the government agency, a service kiosk located close to the client, or the use of a personal computer in the home or office.

In today’s era of highly developed information technology, the construction of E-Government by government at all levels is to realize the core objectives including Enhance efficiency and revolutionize government functions through informatization, Reorganize government work flow and Improve public service levels to make the government e-ready.

The E-Government construction aims at establishing a complete set of electronic office system to provide services for such three major sectors as government sectors and their civil servants, enterprises and the public.

·         Construct a government portal website to provide one-stop services for enterprises and institutions and the public.

·         Construct a government information release website, and establish administrative license & approval systems to make public the government affairs and realize democratic supervision.

·         Establish internal office system of government and business system of functional departments to realize “One-stop office”.

·         Establish various office systems such as official document transfer and videoconference systems based on the internal government network to realize coordinated work among civil servants. For functional developments, establish dedicated business systems. Establish an intelligent analysis and assistant decision-making system based on the above basic application systems so as to promote the application level of E-Government system.

·         Establish a platform within the government for sharing and exchanging internal resources.

·         Consolidate the internal data sources of government, and establish data sharing & exchange mechanism among governments at all levels to create a data platform with multi-level management and resource sharing functions.

The E-Government construction shall be application-oriented, with an aim to improve overall work efficiency of government and serve the public and enterprises. It concerns how to receive national policies, laws and regulations, and how to realize smooth information communication. The major applications, such as official document release, transfer, distribution and so on, must well meet the needs of governmental affairs. As the foundation of the whole E-Government system, the E-Government network platform is a basic guarantee of the implementation of E-Government applications. Therefore, its stability and reliability not only relate to the implementation of E-Government applications, but also affect the work efficiency of government and services provided for the public and enterprises.

Analogous to e-commerce, which allows businesses to transact with each other more efficiently (B2B) and brings customers closer to businesses (B2C), e-government aims to make the interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and business enterprises (G2B), and inter-agency relationships (G2G) more friendly, convenient, transparent, and inexpensive - World Bank

In addition, as the platform on which core office systems of government run, E-Government brings into question the security of confidential government information, which is a core element of E-Government system construction. The security of network platform underlying the E-Government is the root of E-Government security. With the development of informatization, the information technologies have found wide applications in the government and at the same time raised a challenge for government information center to manage various information systems.

The in-depth development of informatization construction raises a need for closer communication within governments, among government agencies, between government agencies and the public and between government agencies and enterprise. Therefore, a stable and reliable information communication platform must be established so as to enhance the work efficiency of government and improve the overall national competitive edge in informatization.

The informatization construction of government sector must ensure the reliability of information system. The network system platform underlying the information system, however, must ensure the reliability of the network system and smooth implementation of various applications in the government. Only a stable government information system can provide efficient internal office applications for government agencies.

The LAN information system of government sectors provides such services as the transfer of important official documents within the government, office system applications, public information services for the public and enterprises. Lack of a reliable network system not only makes it impossible to ensure the normal operation of various document and office systems, and provide stable public information services for the public and enterprises, but also greatly lowers the internal work efficiency of government agencies, eventually impairing the government image.

The network reliability is a basic guarantee of E-Government network development, and network security is the prerequisite for network system stability. The disclosure of internal government information primarily results from the network security holes. Therefore, the following must be taken into account for the network security: Physically or logically separate different business networks to effectively ensure the data security between network systems as well as security and reliability of internal confidential data of government agencies. Exercise strict control over the access of various personnel to the internal network of government, especially the access to government Intranet to prevent the disclosure of confidential information. The network system must take into full account the security of various network devices to ensure their stability under various network attacks such as worms and scanning and enhance the stability of government network system. The network security shall be taken into consideration at various layers from network devices to network applications in the network system to ensure protection against virus and attacks. The official documents of government agencies necessitate absolute confidentiality in a virtual world where Trojans and Phishing software run rampant. Therefore, a strict security control is required to ensure the security of various confidential documents within government agencies. The network security calls for a global protection of various network security devices instead of only a simple single-point protection.

The security of confidential government information can by no means be neglected. The information security must be taken into consideration by the government during the construction of network platform. An imperative problem that needs to be addressed during the E-Government construction is how to provide a set of stable and reliable data storage center for the government to store important data, and deliver reliable data services for government agencies, the public and enterprises at the same time.

“Open government” is a basic task of E-Government construction, and achieved by connecting the government information systems to Internet and making government information public and accessible to the public and enterprises. The Internet, however, is the breeding ground of network attacks and virus. Therefore, the effective assurance of the security of government information system is the prerequisite for “Open government”.

The government network in the 21st century must enable various network access modes so as to boost the work efficiency of government agencies, and provide access to wireless network in such locations as offices and halls through the deployment of wireless network. Ensure the security of wireless network through effective control over the access of various wireless devices so as to improve the security of network system and information as well.