E-Government and City Informatization

Songde Ma
Vice Minister
  Ministry of Science and Technology, People´s Republic of China

Background

Under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the High-Level Forum on City Informatization in the Asia-Pacific Region (CIAPR) is co-sponsored by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the Office of the Steering Committee for the State Informatization of China, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation of China the Ministry of Information Industry of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The centrality of the role cities in a country’s and region’s economic, political, social and cultural progress is unquestionable, and the challenges faced by cities in Asia will have a major impact on the region’s ability to pursue sustainable and equitable development. The Asia-Pacific region is home to some of the most populous cities in the world. Over forty percent of Asia’s four billion populations live in these cities. Given these urbanisation trends, thirty-three Asian cities will have populations greater than five million in the coming decade, with much of the urban sprawl taking place along coastal lines with severe environmental impact as well.

At the same time, it is established that about half of global GDP growth will take place in Asia this decade, and the economic vitality of the region, especially its urban centres, is evident. The challenge is to harness this growth for the alleviation of urban poverty and for ecologically sound human development. Responsive and responsible governance of, and access to, economic, human institutional, information and technological resources are critical to this effort. So are the public-private partnerships necessary to make it happen.

Given this context, CIAPR aims at stimulating the development of city informatization in the Asia-Pacific region by stimulating regional and inter-country co-operation, particularly south-south co-operation, in both the state and corporate sector, to ease the digital divide and the knowledge economy gap between developed and developing cities in this region.

The first and the second CIAPR Forums were held 4 - 6 June 2000 and 24 - 26 May 2001, respectively, in Shanghai, China. The up-to-date themes and the rich and colourful activities of these two Forums have attracted hundreds mayors and representatives from more than fifty cities not only from the Asia-Pacific region but also the other regions of the world. During these Forums, mayors, city representatives, business leaders, experts and scholars shared their visions, strategies, practices and experiences through a series of working sessions and panel discussions. Due to the effectiveness and practicability, outcomes and popularity of the Forums, high-level interest and interaction have already been generated around CIAPR. Leaders of governments, the IT business sector, academic and non-government organisations, and mayors world-wide are paying increasing attention to this annual global event.

Under the guidance of the "Shanghai Declaration", which was adopted by the mayors at the first Forum, the Asia-Pacific Regional Co-operation Committee and its standing office, i.e., the Regional Co-operation Office for City Informatisation (RCOCI) with the website www.apcitv.org, are in-operation and well functioning. Particular emphasis given by the Committee is on the promotion of regional and international co-operation, particularly south-south co-operation, in the pursuance of ICTs for economic and social development.

The third CIAPR Forum will be held from 12 to 14 June 2002, in Shanghai, China. Given the fact that e-government holds considerable potentials to foster democracy and development and has become one of the most important and popular applications of modern information technology, CIAPR III will focus on e-government and city informatization and present and debate on various key issues in developing e-government, including policy, strategy and priority in e-government development; e-government services to citizens; e-government services to business; Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for e-government, bridging digital divide and universal access to the Internet; and public private partnership building in e-government.

A number of special thematic sessions, with panellists from top e-government officers and professionals of advanced e-government countries, will be organised at the CIAPR III to provide the mayors and city decision-makers world-wide with real world solutions of and best practices in e-government.

The CIAPR Forum has become a premier gathering of high-level government officers, mayors, policy developers and decision makers, the private sector and IT business leaders of the world, It is the only annual event focusing exclusively on municipal-level information and communications technologies and the related local-to-global knowledge economy. It is an unprecedented opportunity for the people, governments, corporate sector and IT specialists world-wide to benefit from the expertise, knowledge and experiences of each other, and to strengthen the strategic partnerships with the global knowledge and IT community and the United Nations in doing so.

Objectives

To provide a platform for government officers, leading IT vendors, experts and non-governmental institutions to exchange their visions and perspectives on and share experiences in e-government and city informatization, so as to assist the municipal governments in formulating e-government policies and strategies, building up e-government infrastructure, developing e-government applications, and addressing various managerial issues in e-government development.
To provide Stimulus and space for inter-country and inter-city co-operation as well as public-private partnership building, in efforts on developing e-government and bridging the global digital divide.

Key Themes

The CIAPR III will focus primarily on the following six themes:

Theme l: Policy, strategy and priority in e-government significance of and visions on e-government; policy issues for stimulating e-government development; relevant legislative subjects on e-government development, development strategies for e-government, priority setting in developing e-government, etc.

Theme 2: Bridging digital divide and universal access to the Internet choices of citizens: electronic service delivery vs. traditional service channels; national strategy to ensure citizens benefit from the knowledge and opportunities created by the Internet; reliable access to the Internet for the weak groups of the society; e-community and community access to e-services; etc.

Theme 3: E-government services to citizens major areas of e-government for services to citizens; experiences and lessons of smart cards; revenue collection; customer relationship management in e-government; website portraits for services to citizens; protection of personal information and privacy; etc.

Theme 4: E-government services to business major areas of e-government for better services to business; e-government for stimulating e-commerce development; taxation on-line; import and export promotion; creating a conducive environment for investment; e-procurement of government; website portraits for services to business; etc.

Theme 5: Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for e-government significance of PKI in electronic transactions; PKI management and operational policy framework and governance structure; development strategy of PKI; deployment of PKI across government; PKI implementation and interoperability; etc.

Theme 6: Public Private Partnership building in e-government partnership of government and the private and not-for-profit sectors in e-government development; long-term and enterprise-wide planning for e-government; innovative and inventive solutions of the private sector for e-government development; etc.

Design of Activities

The third CIAPR Forum will invite a number of Keynote Speakers from government leaders of e-government advanced countries to address on visions, perspectives and principles of e-government and reinventing government in the information age. A number of world IT business leaders will also be invited to attend the CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) Forum to discuss certain key issues in e-government development, such as the relationship between the new economy and e-government, public private partnership building in e-government development, and innovative and inventive solutions for e-government.

The working sessions will be conducted through (a) summit Conference, (b) theme paper presentations, (c) panel discussions, and (d) wrap-up reviews on experiences and lessons in e-government practices. Some field trips, to IGT application sites, may also be arranged by the host city during the Forum.

Policy developers and decision makers in the forefront of e-government development of advanced countries, well-known international experts and scholars on e-government, IGT leading entrepreneurs, will be invited as panellists and make addresses and presentations at the thematic panels.

In addition, a series of exhibitions with regard to solutions and best practices of e-government and city informatization will be organised around the Conference facilities in Shanghai for the benefit of the participants.

It is intended that the third CIAPR Forum will be characterised by its richness in information, knowledge and practical experiences from the world-wide e-government leaders, either in governments, in business, or in the international community. In addition, the closer and face-to-face interaction r between the Keynote Speakers, the CEOs and the panellists and the participants of the Forum will no doubt make the CIAPR III more vivid and fruitful.

Participants

There will be five categories of participants at the third CIAPR Forum:

Government leaders, ministers, chief information officers (ClOs) of government, and policy developers and decision makers of e-government;
Mayors, decision-makers, and representatives of municipal governments from the Asia-Pacific region and world-wide;
Business/corporate leaders and entrepreneurs in e-government development, information and communication technologies, and information and knowledge industries;
International experts and scholars on e-government, information and communication technologies, information and knowledge industries, and city informatization;
Representatives from the UN System, international and regional organisations, civil society and non-governmental organisations from the region and world-wide.