IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The growth of urban areas in Asia-Pacific has exploded over the past few decades — between 1980 and 2010, the population living in the region’s cities grew by more than 1 billion, and by 2050, the region’s urban population will reach 3.2 billion.

Unsurprisingly, digital-related growth and investment are highly concentrated in the region’s major cities, which are playing an ever-important role in shaping and controlling digital innovation. In the process, they are also helping tackle digital governance challenges, as the report Cities as Epicenters of Digitalization, presented at the 2019 Singapore Summit, shows.

The E-Government Rankings have been compiled by Darrell West of the Center for Public Policy at Brown University annually for the last four years. Whereas each previous survey represented a snapshot of e-government progress at a fixed point in time, now it begins to be possible to gauge the pace of change and to speculate on the underlying drivers for e-government adoption in specific countries and regions.

Senior officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal have agreed to collaborate on a subregional information communication technology (ICT) project to improve connectivity among the four countries.

Die elektronische Gesundheitskarte ist ihrer Realisierung einen großen Schritt näher gekommen: Auf der Computermesse CEBIT hat das vom Softwarehersteller IBM geführte Industriekonsortium bIT4health Bundesgesundheitsministerin Ulla Schmidt die so genannte Telematikrahmenarchitektur übergeben, ein über tausendseitiges Dokument, das eine Art schematischer Bauplan für die künftige Kommunikationsinfrastruktur im deutschen Gesundheitswesen sein soll.

In the past few years, governments in Asia-Pacific have invested millions in online initiatives in the hope of giving citizens easier access to services ranging from the filing of taxes to the application of government permits.

But there are triumphs despite the challenges. Take Indonesia. Policy loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are helping Southeast Asia’s largest economy rejuvenate a tired and abused tax collection system into one that generated 40 per cent more revenue in 2008 than it did before a new system was implemented.

Stating that the government of Kerala has this week introduced a new system that will go a long way in improving the crime investigation in the state, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) appreciates that the police modernisation efforts in Kerala makes a model for Asia.

The government has issued an order, that from now on, interviewing suspects in all police stations is prohibited, and that such interviews must be conducted only at what is called as `e-rooms' setup by the government near every district police headquarters.

Asia’s cities are facing what could be one of their greatest challenges. Unprecedented urbanization coupled with other pressing issues such as a rising middle class, explosive population growth, shifting demographics and increasing pressure to go green is pushing Asia’s cities to the limit.

More than half of the world’s mega-cities, are today found in the Asia-Pacific, with an expected 62 megacities by 2025, up from the current 32. With Asia urbanizing at such a rate, Asia is turning to smart cities to bolster economic growth, attract new business activities and to deal with the issues that accompany population growth in cities. Singapore aims to be the first Smart Nation; other Asian countries such as China and India are implementing smart cities on a massive scale. Korea has recently built Songdo, touted as the world’s first smart city from scratch.

Japan, China und Südkorea wollen gemeinsam ein auf Linux basierendes Betriebssystem als Alternative zu Microsofts Windows entwickeln. Ein entsprechendes Abkommen sei jetzt in Peking unterzeichnet worden, berichten diverse japanische Medien.

LG CNS established LG CNS Uzbekistan in April this year. Since then, the local corporation has signed contracts worth approximately 25 billion won in the three fields of database business for individual and corporate customers, integrated platform business and IT infrastructure improvement at educational facilities.

At present, LG CNS Uzbekistan is working on contracts worth a total of 127 billion won (US$108 million), including those related to digital libraries, tax management services, kiosks for civil petitions, national geographic information and portals for the central and local governments of Uzbekistan. Under the circumstances, an increasing number of Korean companies doing the same business as LG CNS are expected to be able to start their business in the country.

Japan, China und und Südkorea wollen gemeinsam ein neues Betriebssystem auf der Basis von Linux entwickeln und damit eine Alternative zu Microsofts Windows für die ostasiatische Region schaffen.

Welcoming the Heads of Public Procurement Agencies or Authorities of the eight member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena Monday inaugurated the Fourth South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference in Colombo.

The Conference under the theme "Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) in South Asia: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges" turns spotlight on how E-Government Procurement can support countries in boosting the efficiency, transparency and competitiveness of their public procurement systems.

One of Asia’s first smart city Proof of Concept is set to be launched in the Cyberjaya area in Malaysia this February.

The concept will be launched by technology company NTT Group in partnership with the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the US City of Las Vegas and Telephone Corporation.

The project, which has a budget of US$35 million over four years, is expected to see more universities and research institutes benefit from higher speed internet access, next-generation multi-party teleconferencing, virtual classrooms and remote consulting.

The Internet can provide electronic, paperless filing and payments that is fast and easy, secure and free. Online guides and frequently asked questions are available for users.

The system is accessible 24x7 and incentives can be given easily to encourage usage.