KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE HON. AUSTIN GATT MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT "THE PLAN FOR eGOVERNMENT" AT THE CONFERENCE "TECHNOLOGY - AVOID IT, EMBRACE IT OR MANAGE IT?"

The Plan for eGovernment

Deloitte and Touche Conference: Key Note Address by the Minister for Justice and Local Government

The emergence of eCommerce has spurred many debates over the last couple of years on whether eCommerce was merely a passing fad or whether it constituted the next revolution. Statistics such those issued by Forrester Research Inc which forecast that eCommerce transactions would reach US$1.4 trillion by 2003 leave no doubt that eCommerce is here to stay.

eCommerce is not solely about technology. In fact, technology may, perhaps, be the simplest component of the eCommerce framework. The truth of the matter is that electronic commerce brings with it a new milieu of values, culture, behaviour, work patterns and organisational designs – with interactions within organisations and external to them changing beyond recognition. The real challenge of eCommerce is whether we are ready to change the way we do things.

"After e-commerce and e-business the next Internet revolution will be e-government" states The Economist in its issue of the 24^th June. And, the question that follows, therefore, is: should we re-define our understanding of our public service and public sector in order to transform not only the way services are delivered but also the fundamental relationship between the Government and the citizens?

Not many people enjoy dealing with the Government and I am sure that people mostly do it because they have to.

One of the greatest problems for any individual dealing with the Government is its bureaucratic structure resulting in a high degree of complexity. The Malta public service has over 50 departments delivering public services as well as performing regulatory functions. Moreover, a number of critical services such electricity and water rest with the broader public sector. On the fringes are authorities, agencies and public enterprises.

For an individual citizen to find out which department, corporation, authority or agency is responsible for a particular task or function is hard enough. Undertaking a fairly straight forward transaction – such as selling a house or changing an address – can easily become a Herculean task as a number of different government entities requiring a myriad of different forms may be involved.

As increasing numbers of Maltese have become dependent on ATMs and ‘on phone transactions' for banking services the willingness of the business and local communities and the individual Maltese citizen to accept poor service delivery levels by the public service and the public sector respectively has over the years increasingly coming under strain – as it should!

This pressure for accelerated improvement in the delivery of public services is further leveraged by the fact that the Maltese are increasingly embracing the emerging phenomena of electronic commerce. Accessing the Internet to, for example, review and procure books, cds, down loadable music and software through virtual companies is slowly becoming part of the local purchasing behaviour.

In my party's 1987 electoral manifesto, we recognized that Information Technology is a "powerful tool" for attaining "efficient service" and for providing an "on line government service to people within their own homes and in the community". The vision my Government set in 1990 and has implemented over the past decade has allowed the Public Service to have in place a consistent, coherent, and convergent IT architecture and infrastructure. This IT architecture and infrastructure, which saw an investment of over $100 million, places the Government in a position far stronger then that experienced by most nations, perhaps even the leading information nations, to attain Information Age Government.

Over the past twenty-four months of Office, my Government has embarked on a number of initiatives directed to establish the appropriate framework within which eGovernment will be attained. A number of these initiatives consolidate past policy directions – others seek to introduce new thrusts and strategic orientations.

I believe that it is important that I establish the fundamental principles which underpin the Government's Vision for eGovernment.

Firstly, eGovernment must translate in the provision of services electronically to individuals as well as businesses on a 24-hour by 7 days basis with easy access in terms of speed, entry points, affordability and points of entry.

Secondly, the provision of eGovernment services must be inclusive – discriminating neither against persons with disabilities nor persons marginalised from society.

Thirdly, the cost of eGovernment services to the users of those services must at worst be neutral and at best must realise financial savings in the provision of such services.

Finally, the provision of eGovernment services must be in provided in a way that the guarantee privacy and integrity in its use.

To achieve these principles a three tier architecture framework is proposed.

The first tier consists of the delivery channels through which individuals and businesses will interact with Government. In order to ensure social inclusion the delivery channels will include conventional as well as third generation technologies from public kiosks, local councils and schools to mobile telephony, WAP services, digital TV and other emerging technologies. Nevertheless, the main backbone for the provision of eGovernment services over the next two to three years is expected to be the Internet - primarily through the PC.

The second tier will consist of the eGovernment Portal. In this regard access by any delivery channel for eServices will be routed solely through the Portal. The Portal will house data protection rules to ensure confidentiality and privacy at all times and allow the user full control on the data he wants to input into the system.

The gate keeper to the Portal will be by means of public key infrastructure technology that will be lodged within the Portal as against individual back end systems. Thus, an individual will only need one key to access any Government service routed through the Portal. In order to maintain absolute transparency in the use of eGovernment services it is envisaged that the Certification Authority and the eGovernment Portal operator will be two distinct entities – with the former residing outside of the domain, influence or control of Government.

The third tier relates to the connectivity of the back end applications with the Government Portal in order to allow for ‘end to end' transactional services. The integration of the back end applications must be designed in a manner that cuts across existing bureaucratic processes, designing services in terms of episodes and orgaising them in terms of life clusters. The clustering of such services will, in turn, enable the creation of ‘one stop shop' centres. Of important significance, however, is that the ‘one stop shop' centres will consist of virtual clusters and virtual organisations as against the undertaking of functional re-organisation on the ground.

I must underline that the successful attainment of eGovernment is dependent on the establishment of a technology architectural framework that is cohesive, coherent and seamless

This centrally driven approach to eGovernment – which is consistent with eGovernment strategies undertaken in the UK and Ireland – for example will ensure that there is no unilateral activity which may be undertaken by different Ministries that could jeopardise an integrated approach to eGovernment.

In this regard the financing of eGovernment is intended to be multi-pronged.

The first prong will involve central seed corn funding for the initial development of the policy parameters, standards, and the pilot environment.

A critical second prong supplementing the above, is the Government's intention to establish strategic partnerships with major international IT firms to introduce the technology framework underpinning the eGovernment initiative.

The third prong, which will follow the introduction of the appropriate eGovernment technology regime, will consist of using IT ministry funding in partnership with local private industry to establish eGovernment services

Yet, eGovernment cannot be viewed in isolation. I believe that the drive towards eGovernment should serve as the catalyst to transform the transform Malta into an information society and an information economy.

In conjunction with efforts directed towards achieving eGovernment, a national capacity building exercise has to be undertaken in order to establish what is popularlly known as the New Economy. As an immediate step in this regard the Government has embarked upon the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.

Malta can only truly become an information society and an information economy if the communications infrastructure is affordable and accessible: not only to business but to the community at large. Whilst Information Society Providers (ISPs) have emerged the cost of interconnectivity is still expensive when compared with other jurisdictions in Europe – let alone the USA. Thus, a monopolistic scenario as previously enjoyed by Maltacom plc prior to June 2000 or a retention of privileges for a period far beyond January 2003 would constitute a strategic policy direction that would hinder national interests.

As the sector is liberalised and as the private sector gears itself for full competition in this sector the cost of interconnectivity in terms of bandwidth and accessibility has to decrease – with the recently established Malta Communications Authority having been given sufficient clout to ensure that this will be so.

Concerted efforts are being directed towards establishing a sustainable foundation for achieving digital literacy. In 1994, the Nationalist Government embarked on a programme to introduce PC in state schools. Today, over 4,500 PCs have been introduced.

Preparatory steps are currently underway to introduce Internet to 30 schools by the end of this year and a further 50 by the end of 2001. The educational curriculum now includes information technology as one of the prime subjects in secondary education.

Whilst statistics provided recently by the ISPs indicate that internet penetration has experienced rapid growth over the past twelve months, the proportion of population with access to the internet is still considerably below that in a number of European and North American countries.

In this regard two strategic initiatives for promoting universal use of the Internet are under consideration.

The first relates to the dissemination of email on a national scale as mandated within the electoral manifesto. The national email will allow all citizens to be addressable and reachable in electronic form at a single electronic address.

The second relates to the consideration of providing a National Free Maltese Internet System directed towards giving unrestricted Internet access to sites located in Malta. The introduction of such a system will be dependent on the creation of a Malta Internet Exchange as otherwise access to the local sites would be possible only through international lines.

The Government has recognised that traditional laws alone are inadequate in the information age. Trade over the Internet will always be a risky unless electronic transactions have a sound legal backing. People will always be vulnerable to breaches of privacy without legislation that regulates the processing of their personal data. And victims of theft of data or sabotage of their information systems may find that existing criminal law offers them little remedy.

In this regard, and to effect the attainment of eGovernment, the Government in May launched a White Paper titled ‘A Legislative Framework for Information Practices' for public feedback. The legislative framework which the Government will take to Parliament this autumn is directed to establishing functional equivalence between electronic and conventional transactions and communication, setting parameters for determining authentication and non-repudiation of transactions and communications, introducing rules to govern privacy and related issues, and establishing a regime for regulating crime arising from misuse and abuse of information technology.

Despite two attempts made in the last six years to establish a national office that owns the strategic direction for the attainment of an Information Society and Information Economy, Malta is currently devoid of such a set-up. Inevitably, efforts are not concerted, orchestrated and macro managed – thereby at times failing to build the appropriate critical mass that will render them sustainable as well as complementary to other related initiatives.

In this regard, a recommendation has been submitted for Cabinet's consideration to constitute an Information Society and Economy Commission, which is to be empowered with the mandate to act as the actalyst in the transformation of Malta into an Information Society and Information Economy.

The Government is committed to undertake the appropriate policy thrusts to strengthen the relationship between the government and the people of Malta and to ensure that every one of us obtains public services effectively, efficiently, and economically.

The Government recognises that the potential of eGovernment is enormous in meeting these stated objectives. Yet, for once the technology – although crucial to making egovernment a reality – is the least of the problems. The challenges will stem from handling departmental conflicts, the fears of individuals, the complexity and scope of the initiative, and the establishment of Malta as an information society

I believe that it is also crucial that this initiative be viewed as a public-private partnership where Government provides the policy direction, the legislative framework, the incentives and the leadership and the private sector provides the knowhow and exploits the market opportunities.

It is critical that prior to embarking on the attainment of eGovernment the players concerned have a full understanding of eGovernment principles and a clear strategy for the handling of the politics of change. The attainment of eGovernment requires committed leadership, the mobilisation of the required resources and the attainment of that critical mass which is necessary to drive through what in essence constitutes a generational revolution.

This Government will provide that leadership.