Mr Peter Ho delivered the keynote address at the iGov Global Forum.

The launch of the next e-Government masterplan in 2011 will mark a drastic change in Singapore’s e-Government landscape. Evolving away from the current “Gov-to-You” mindset in delivering e -services, a new, inclusive approach will be taken, where the Government will co-create and connect with the people.

Speaking at the opening of the iGov Global Forum held at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre on 14 June 2010, Mr Peter Ho, Singapore’s Head of Civil Service and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that this new “Gov-With-You” mindset must develop. As social networking tools proliferate, the public sector must respond with a quantum leap in the way it serves and interacts with its stakeholders.

While Singapore has been highly successful in implementing infocomm technologies since the early 80s, “we now see a growing constituency of empowered citizens who do not necessarily subscribe to the notion of ‘Government knows best’,” Mr Ho said.

“Gov-With-You” will tap into and harness social networking technologies to deliver better and more efficient services to the people.

Singapore is currently ranked number one in infocomm development and usage of infocomm by the Waseda University World e-Government Ranking and the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, and second by the World Economic Forum in its Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010.

The next e-Government masterplan, running from 2011 to 2015, aims to maintain this status, and will focus on three strategic thrusts.

Firstly, the public, private and people sectors will work together to co-create for higher value. While some steps are being taken in this direction currently, such as the collaboration between the Land Transport Authority and Google to provide an integrated service for commuters and motorists, Mr Ho believes more can be done.

“The idea of government-as-a-platform will be further advanced to enable more data – both spatial and textual data – to be shared.” Common applications can even be opened up, to allow the private and people sectors to co-develop and deliver effective services to meet the customers’ needs.

The second thrust of the masterplan – Connecting for Active Participation – seeks to use social networking channels such as blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to connect with citizens and involve them in the shaping of public policies.

In seeking public participation, Mr Ho cautioned that public officers must be able to separate “noise” from genuine feedback, and to hold fast to what is right for the nation instead of bowing to pressures from a vocal minority. At the same time, they must ensure that no one is left out or left behind.

The third thrust of the masterplan aims to catalyse transformation within the whole of Government. This involves ensuring that the design of the Government’s next generation ICT infrastructure will facilitate mass collaboration, shared systems, services and processes under a Whole-of-Government Enterprise Architecture. It also means exploring and leveraging cloud computing, energy-efficient technologies and even business analytics to help public sector agencies make sense of their information.

The iGov Global Forum attracted over 300 participants from 28 countries.

Dr Soumitra Dutta, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology, and Academic Director of eLab, INSEAD, who was a speaker at the Forum found the masterplan very impressive, precisely because it sought to co-create with the private sector and engage with the citizens. “Singapore has always been at the leading edge of e-Government. This solidifies its position as a leading player,” he said.

 “Singapore’s infrastructure is very good and it has continued to improve its service capabilities,” agreed forum delegate Dr Rob Evelo, Programme Manager of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, The Hague, Netherlands. “In that sense, it deserves to be number one.”

Delegates also gave the content and experience gained at the Forum a resounding thumbs-up. Mr Mubarak Balaswad Mubarak, Director General of the Department of Information & e-Government, Government of Sharjah, said the Forum provided an opportunity for countries to find out more about e-Government and to upgrade themselves.

Another participant Dr Naresh Saxena, a consultant with the United Nations Development Programme, found the Forum invaluable in learning from the experiences of countries like Singapore, US, Japan and Denmark, especially on the topic of IT in governance.

“The content is rich and participation, international,” he said, noting that the outcome of the Forum would be far-reaching and that the discussions will have an impact on the direction of e-Government in the future.