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Vice President U Myint Swe in his capacity as Chairman of the e-Government Steering Committee addressed the fourth coordination meeting held at Ministry of Transport and Communications in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday afternoon.
In his address the Vice President said that the e-Government Steering Committee had been formed with Presidential order number 14/2018 issued on 23 January 2018 for the successful implementation of an e-Government system in Myanmar. The committee with State Counsellor as the patron has set five key objectives while the e-Government Implementation Working Committee led by the Union Minister for the Office of the Union Government was also formed with five objectives.
Steering Committee formed an e-ID System Working Committee on 12 June 2018 to successfully implement the directions and instructions of the Steering Committee and to coordinate among the departments. Six sub-committees, Nay Pyi Taw Council Region and State/Region Steering Group and various levels of work groups at Nay Pyi Taw Council Region, State/Region, Self-Administered Division, Self-Administered Region, district, township, ward/village tract levels were formed and works implemented. Eight sub-committees required under the Implementation Working Committee were also formed, duties and responsibilities assigned.
The first meeting of the e-Government Steering Committee was held on 4 April 2018 where five decisions were made of which two were completed while three were still being implemented. It was necessary to set a time limit and coordinate towards completing the ongoing works. The three keys for a rapid progress and success of the e-Government system were expertise, investment and cooperation. Of the three, the first to start off was cooperation and success will be achieved only through cooperation of all government departments. It was necessary to place special emphasis on the guidance provided by the patron of the Steering Committee.
The second meeting of the e-Government Steering Committee was held on 27 June 2018 where 21 decisions were made. Out of this 11 were accomplished while 10 were still being implemented. Of the ongoing decisions, loan agreement for US$ 93.779 million from Republic of Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) to construct e-GIDC (e-Government Integrated Data Center) was signed on 3 September 2019 and implementation work processes would be conducted stage wise for at least three years.
Another long term work process was for relevant committees to submit to the Steering Committee and obtain permission for assistance and support that local and foreign organizations and companies wanted to provide.
Privacy and data policy matters were required to be thoroughly coordinated to be in accord with local and regional situations and this would take some time. Five decisions were related to implementing e-ID system. Ways, means and Public Private Partnership (PPP) formats were to be prepared and submitted by the Procurement and Public-Private Cooperation Sub-Committee.
The third meeting of the e-Government Steering Committee was held on 27 February 2019 where 13 decisions were made of which 10 were completed and three were still be worked on. Difficulties faced and coordination required for the three ongoing works were to be submitted. The three were exchanging experience and information between departments that were starting to use the e-Government system and departments that had not use it yet; and placing emphasis on e-Government works and making timely monthly progress reports without fail were matters to be conducted continuously while rental rates for Data Center rent were to be submitted to the nearest budget upon completion of discussions.
In the three meetings of the e-Government Steering Committee, a total of 39 decisions were made of which 23 were completed while 16 were still being implemented. Of these, the short term works were to be completed before the next meeting and decisions on long term works also need to be completed as soon as possible.
A Myanmar e-Government National Portal that represented the nation was launched in September 2018 combining websites and e-services posted by each government entity of Myanmar to provide good services to the people through a Single Window.
A Myanmar Unicode standard system that was accordance with the International Standard Organization (ISO) was used by all government organizations on 1 April 2019 and throughout the whole country on 1 October 2019. The momentum towards migrating and using the Myanmar Unicode system needed to be maintained.
Myanmar owned satellite system MyanmarSat-2 was an opportunity to obtain government’s service throughout the whole country. It was launched on 7 August 2019 and it has been in use starting from 15 October 2019.
Central organizations, Union ministerial departments, Nay Pyi Taw Council, State/Region governments had conducted surveys and assessment works on current IT and e-Government related works and were learnt to have enabled the effective and beneficial usage of computer License Software.
Fourth meetings of e-Government Steering Committee and e-ID System Working Committee were learnt to be held on 31 October 2019 and 1 November 2019 respectively. Matters that require the decisions of the Steering Committee were to be submitted by the work committees.
Due to the leadership and management of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of e-Government Implementation Working Committee and efforts of each sub-committee, works were believed to be conducted without losing momentum. Furthermore preparations on laws, rules and procedures required for e-ID works were to be made. Arrangements were to be made to effectively connect to the e-Government work processes once the e-ID system was implemented.
In successfully implementing the e-Government system all were urged to cooperate, set and conduct mid and long term work processes as well as drawing up and simultaneously implementing short term work processes for Quick Win Services that provide tangible and concrete results for the people.
Attendees were urged to openly discuss and suggest on status of works completed and difficulties faced when conducting the works, said the Vice President. Next, Steering Committee Secretary Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications U Tha Oo explained about the decisions and implementations made at the e-Government Steering Committee third work coordination meeting.
This was followed by meeting attendees explaining about works conducted at various levels, stages and sub-committees while Union Ministers U Kyaw Tint Swe, U Thant Sin Maung, U Min Thu, Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, U Soe Win and Dr Myint Htwe, Union Civil Service Board Chairman Dr Win Thein and Magway Region Chief Minister Dr Aung Moe Nyo participated in the discussions, made suggestions and gave explanations on status of sector wise works conducted for successful implementation of the e-Government system.
Vice President U Myint Swe gave comments and suggestions to ensure coordination based on the discussions. The meeting then came to a close after a closing speech by him.
Present at the meeting were e-Government Steering Committee Vice Chairmen Union Minister for Office of the Union Government U Min Thu and Union Minister for Transport and Communications U Thant Sin Maung; committee members Union Ministers Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Lt-Gen Sein Win, Lt-Gen Ye Aung, U Kyaw Tint Swe, Dr Pe Myint, Thura U Aung Ko, Dr Aung Thu, U Ohn Win, U Win Khaing, U Thein Swe, Dr Myo Thein Gyi, Dr Myint Htwe, U Soe Win, U Han Zaw, Dr Win Myat Aye and U Nai Thet Lwin, Union Civil Service Board Chairman Dr Win Thein, Nay Pyi Taw Council Chairman Dr Myo Aung, State/Region Chief Ministers Dr Khet Aung, U L Phaung Sho, U Salai Lian Luai, Dr Myint Naing, U Myint Maung. Dr Aung Moe Nyo, U Nyi Pu, U Phyo Min Thein, Dr Linn Htut and U Hla Moe Aung; deputy ministers, Deputy Attorney General, state/region ministers, Central Bank of Myanmar Deputy Governor, Myanmar Computer Federation patron, experts, technicians, departmental heads and officials. — MNA
(Translated by Zaw Min)
