IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

As you sit at home facing your personal computer, you can renew your civil records, pay your taxes, fill in a passport request form and seek other services. All of these depend on the possibility of finishing the electronic governance project which links the country’s provinces through 1 digital system.

Iraq is laying the foundations for e-commerce after years of violence, government officials said during a dialogue on e-commerce and the digital economy late last month in Baghdad. The event started week-long consultations that are part of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) assessment of the country’s readiness to engage in e-commerce.

This is the first such exercise in a non-least developed country, according to an UNCTAD press release.

The new system will create an electronic archive that is sustainable and readily accessible and will provide for better services for citizens, such as improved internet and mail services, officials said.

"The e-government project in Anbar aims at providing the best services to the public," said directorate head Mohammed al-Nouri, describing it as "one of the most important advanced systems used in Arab and foreign countries".

Ministry spokesman Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi, told AKnews that the e-government project will provide a rapid link between ministries and government institutions as well as providing the Iraqi citizen with an electronic portal to the government, enabling many administrative tasks to be conducted online.

A UAE company has offered to build a sustainable smart city in Iraq with a total area of nearly one million square metres, the Iraqi press reported on Wednesday.

The planned city is located in the Sumerian “UR” town in the Southern Dhi Qar Governorate and will comprise houses, hotels, a university, schools, hospitals, roads, green areas and other facilities, Aliqtisad News and other publications said.

Sitting at a computer, Ammar Mohammad, 22, was surrounded friends as he showed them how to fill out an application form online. His friends were applying for drivers licenses. They were delighted to get the paperwork done quickly and easily using the electronic government system over the Internet that the Baghdad government is implementing.

"The system has become so much easier. We go to the website, find the form, fill it out and submit it by e-mail. Then, they send us a confirmation number and the date for the driving test. This is wonderful," Mohammad says happily.

The Army's Joint Theater Support Contracting Command in Baghdad said it wants a vendor to install an open source version of the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture at the 50-bed Al Muthana Military Hospital, operated by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

Launching the "e-government" initiative, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said sectarian politics had helped create corruption by dividing ministries among groups who give patronage to their members.

As it was the first time to celebrate this day here in the northern region of Iraq, for many it was even the first time hearing the word. The clueless audience was listening with curiosity as presentations including basic and more detailed information about how GIS can change and improve their lives were shown.

"Iraq was devastated by the former regime and we are grateful for Italy's presence as part of the multinational forces helping to restore peace," Rashad Omar, minister of Science and Technology in the new Iraqi government, told a news conference.

With e-government initiatives assuming greater priority across the Middle East, Iraq's lack of legacy systems could enable the country to leapfrog its neighbours, while achieving savings of up to 25 percent by cutting out paper-based trading practices, according to Tejari Iraq's managing director, Emad Makarem.

"We want to know your needs and how we can help you," Dr. Stanley Grogg, interim provost and dean of the Oklahoma State University College of Health Sciences in Tulsa, told them.

The slight lag in the satellite video feed was the only evidence the doctors on the big screen were more than 7,000 miles away at Kadhamiyah Teaching Hospital in a dangerous section of Baghdad.

The doctors from Oklahoma State University's Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa are using video technology to interact with doctors from Iraq's second largest hospital. It's a first in a new plan that could help save the lives of Iraqi children.

Doctors, like Christine Clary will be sharing ideas and expertise with Iraqi doctors caring for kids in a 655 bed hospital in Bagdad.