National ICT opens its doors
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Contact: Lucius Doxerie
Thursday, January 29, 2009 – The first National Information and Communications Technology Center (ICT) which costs about 1.5 million dollars is scheduled to officially open in Saint Lucia on Monday, 2nd February, 2009. It is situated at the building next to the National Library at the Derek Walcott Square in Castries. This National ICT Center is another major project jointly financed and supported by the Governments of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Saint Lucia, which was initiated just a year ago when staff of the Taiwan Embassy approached the e-Government Unit under the Ministry for Social Transformation, Public Service, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports and exchanged views on the vision and strategies of developing the comprehensive e-Government portal in Saint Lucia. Lessons have been learned from previous joint projects between Saint Lucia and other countries in the similar area for which it is deeply appreciated by the Governments of Saint Lucia and R.O.C. (Taiwan). It is on that foundation that the new initiative was built and further incorporated ideas with an aim to provide wide range of e-service through one single government portal. At the first phase, two systems with imminent urgency were identified to be tackled by officials from the Government of Saint Lucia and the Embassy of the R.O.C. (Taiwan). Their features are as follows: Crime Records Management System in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security. It enables the Ministry, especially the Police Headquarters, to accurately record all relevant details of crime that occurs in Saint Lucia; it also provides a platform for collating and analyzing crime data which contains management information for strategic and tactical decision making. Further, it creates an auditable record of investigative action and establishes minimum standards for crime investigation; it essentially formulates a mechanism for effective supervision of individual police officer’s investigation caseload and lastly, but not the least, it helps improve the necessary service provided to victims of crime and their families.
Transport Department Licensing System n collaboration with the Ministry of Communications, Works, Transport and Public Utilities. This system features efficient and effective driver and vehicle registration and management modules. It also enables a procedure of user friendly reports; thus it keeps detailed logs and trails of drivers and vehicles for audit purposes. It also contains high-end security functions to ensure information security, and most noticeably, it provides a sustainable management system for issuing drivers’ licence cards with an anti-forgery design. The Center will serve as the hub for developing further e-Government services in Saint Lucia. Activities immediately after the National ICT Center officially opens to the public include e-Conference facilities, workshops, education and training programmes for civil servants and technological staff. In addition to maintaining servers supporting both the Crime Records Management System and the Transport Department Licensing System, the Governments of Saint Lucia and Taiwan have committed to the e-Government project by actively serving public needs, reinforcing social care, and boosting network interactions. Taiwan ranked second in the latest online government survey by U.S.-based Brown University, moving one notch higher since the previous year's ranking. Taiwan trailed South Korea but led the other 96 countries in the study, which was conducted during June and July 2008. A total of 1,667 government Web sites were analyzed based on many criteria, including the contents of central government Web sites, disability access, the presence of privacy policies, security policies, contact information, foreign-language options, advertisement and user fees, and the number of on-line services. Under a 0-100 point scoring system, Taiwan received full marks in the rating for offering online publications, announcement of privacy and security policies, and foreign-language options. Taiwan was given a score of 58.7 in the general e-government rating, lagging behind South Korea’s 64.7 points but beating the United States’ score of 53.7 points — the top three in the annual Brown University rating. In Taiwan, more than 13 million people ages 12 and older use the Internet, and the time they spend surfing the net was found to surpass 2.4 hours a day on average. The Internet has become one of major channels for mutual communications between residents in Taiwan and the central and local governments. |
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