The Bahamas' E-Government Initiative
The Hon. Michael Halkitis, Minister of State for Finance was the special guest speaker at the club's meeting on March 14, 2013. Speaking on the government's e-Government Initiative, Min. Halkitis outlined the importance and potential benefits of this project to The Bahamas. He noted that to be successful at doing business, companies and countries alike must be competitive, transparent, and proficient. The use of information technology (IT) and more specifically e-Government, has become the driving force behind easing doing business within a country and will spur economic growth and overall productivity gains.
Minister Halkitis thanked for his presentation to the club by Rotarian Leroy Archer.
The Hon. Michael Halkitis, Minister of State for Finance was the special guest speaker at the club's meeting on March 14, 2013. Speaking on the government's e-Government Initiative, Min. Halkitis outlined the importance and potential benefits of this project to The Bahamas. He noted that to be successful at doing business, companies and countries alike must be competitive, transparent, and proficient. The use of information technology (IT) and more specifically e-Government, has become the driving force behind easing doing business within a country and will spur economic growth and overall productivity gains.
The Government of The Bahamas has adopted and implemented its e-Government programme by launching a new online portal solution that will allow it to move its services online and ease dissemination of information to citizens, visitors and investors. By using this tool to deliver services, the government will potentially reduce processing time and costs, reduce and eliminate errors usual found with manually processing transaction, improve collection of revenue and streamline business processes.
Min. Halkitis noted that the e-Government portal has received a 100% rating in the UN e-Government Survey 2012 for its web presence due to the number of forms and services available online to key stakeholders. The portal also offers a secure payment gateway to facilitate payment transactions such as small fines payment, tax payment and license renewals. To support this solution, the Government has enacted e-Commerce regulations, implemented a governance framework, actively engage citizens and businesses to gather ideas and satisfaction and will continue to promote and educate the public regarding this programme.
Moving forward, the Minister explained that a comprehensive re-engineering exercise of the processes within the public sector will be conducted to improve overall efficiency and services delivery. Additionally, regular forums and engaging focus groups will ensure inclusion and participation in the decision making process. In all, The Bahamas has made strides in adapting e-Government as an enabler for economic growth and change.
Miss. Carol Roach, Department of Information Technology answereduestions from the audience.