Singapore's Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and the National Healthcare Group bested other countries in four categories, namely service innovation, information management, technology leadership and business process.
According to the organizers of the Asia Government Technology Awards, the winners were announced during the Government Technology Summit 2007 in Phuket, Thailand. More than 160 top government officials and technology stakeholders in the region attended the summit.
"There can only be nine winners but myself and the rest of the judges were impressed and a little surprised by the high overall standard of nominations," said James Smith, managing editor of Public Sector Technology and Management (PSTM) magazine, and chairman of the award's judging committee, in a statement.
The annual awards got a total of 212 individual nominations from 14 countries, the organizers said. The projects included initiatives pushed by the national and local governments, healthcare and educational agencies.
The summit was organized by the PSTM magazine, a regional enterprise technology publication for government, education and healthcare, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
"I think the volume of nominations from around the region also points to a desire among public sector agencies to benchmark their projects against their peers, something which this annual awards process facilitates," Smith added.
The other winners are the Government of Gujarat in India, which bagged the award for connected government, while India's Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services took home the top prize for digital inclusion.
The Hong Kong Police Force won the wireless government category, while the Seoul Metropolitan Government bagged the e-government category.
The Emirates Identity Authority topped the information security category with the UAE National ID Program.
The countries that participated in this year's awards include Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Erwin Oliva
Quelle/Source: Inquirer.net, 25.10.2007
