Designing e-Government for the Poor - Tanzania Development ...

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Public key infrastructure initiatives for e-Asia
The online tender system is easy to use and cost effective for the bidder who
can participate in bidding without having to visit city hall in person. Since
2004, mutual usage of the online tender system by seven city governments
has significantly reduced costs of transactions and operations.
Lastly, Mr. Hirokawa described the administration evaluation system
which is part of Yokosuka city’s vision for e-democracy. The system is
designed to evaluate administrative activities, facilitate the planning of
policies, and disclose policy information to the public. Two types of policy
evaluations are provided to the public: evaluation of policies and measures;
and evaluation of government work and services. Citizens can submit
inquiries and comments in regards to the evaluations and policies. A
bulletin board system (BBS) serves as a discussion board between citizens
and government officials. Mr. Hirokawa said that in the future, the city of
Yokosuka plans to establish a time efficient call centre for citizen inquiries,
and a Smart Library.
In the plenary session that followed, a participant asked Mr.
Hirokawa to recommend a system for mitigating flooding. Mr. Hirokawa
explained that Yokosuka city has flood gates in the rivers that are monitored
by the city office through remote control, while the city of Tokyo has
a tank underneath the river. Mr. Hirokawa was asked if each municipality
in Japan develops its own digital system or if there are standardized
modules for the country. Mr. Hirokawa replied that the policy of Yokosuka
city is to purchase as much off the shelf commercial technology from the
vendors as is available. If it is not available, the city will work with the
commercial vendor to develop and customize the technology from scratch.
The intellectual property for the technology belongs to the vendor, thus the
city can procure the software at a relatively inexpensive price. Mr.
Hirokawa was asked for his suggestions on how to maximize the use of the
GIS system in rural areas and poor communities. He said that in the case
of Japan, the island of Shikoku and the prefecture of Kochi, which are
rural areas, serve as good examples. In the Kochi prefecture, a GIS system
combines information about road conditions between local government and
police. The GIS system is also used with a satellite to find natural
resources. Mr. Hirokawa was asked how the rates in e-bidding are kept
confidential. Mr. Hirokawa replied that the online bidding relies on secure
public key infrastructure (PKI) and secure socket layer protocols so that the
transaction between bidder and municipality is protected.
M. Public key infrastructure initiatives for e-Asia
Mr. Yeoul Hwangbo, Professor, Korea Advanced
Institute for Science and Technology
Mr. Hwangbo provided a brief overview of e-government, PKI for egovernment,
and the cyber taxation system for e-government.