Four key strategies in plan for electronic government

The final draft is expected to come out in June and then be submitted to the government for announcement as a strategic plan for the development of electronic government services over the next three years.

Manoo Ordeedolchest, a member of the electronic-government subcommittee under Parliament's ICT committee, has been developing the draft. He said the draft contains four key strategies. The first covers interoperability, privacy, security and accessibility. The second is about reform of the working process of public officers. The third is to encourage and promote the ICT industry, and the fourth is to integrate government services into a single window.

"The framework insists on the development of services for citizens rather than ICT investment in government organisations. It focuses on how to utilise the existing government ICT infrastructure and networks as well as existing  electronic services, and to pool them together to provide a single window of services," said Manoo.

The concept is to integrate existing electronic services with new ones without any additional investment in infrastructure. Manoo said the framework will utilise the advantages of the Internet and Web2.0 technology environments to develop and integrate many services faster and easier.

It anticipates there will eventually be about 500 electronic services available for people rather than only 100 at present. All would be available through a single window providing users with a one-stop service.

The single window should be directly under the government rather than being overseen by the ICT Ministry.

Sak Segkhoonthod, director of Government Information Technology Services, said there are about 800 government websites from across over 200 government organisations which provide information and services. However a report from TrueHits.net said only 2 per cent of these sites are visited by people. This might be because content and services at these websites do not suit their needs. He said government organisations should adjust their website content and services in line with people's real requirements.

To encourage the development plan, policies, laws and regulations are required. Chadamas Thuvasethakul, deputy director of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, said that to promote the development of electronic government services in Thailand, laws and government policies need to be adjusted.

Thailand now has ICT laws covering some aspects of electronic documents, computer security, privacy, interoperability, and people's right to access government information.

Thailand also has an accessibility policy to encourage ICT and telecom infrastructure throughout the country to provide all people with an equal chance to access government services electronically.

Jirapan Boonnoon,

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation