World Report

- Gabriel Grinberg is a journalist who specialises in the Mexican e-government program and developments in public administration.

ll over the world, governments are going electronic. In every part of the globe, from developing countries to industrialised ones, national and regional authorities are automating their processes and interacting electronically with their citizens.
People often feel that government is indifferent to their needs; public servants are frequently perceived as only working for their own benefit. But now new information and communications technologies (ICT) are helping officials transform their negative image.

The use of ICT can promote more effective government, making services more accessible, allowing greater public access to information and achieving a better official response to the needs of the citizens.

But e-government is not a shortcut to economic development, although it will bring budgetary savings and greater efficiency. It is not the governmental equivalent of the Big Bang, a singular event that will completely alter the entire government universe. It is a process of evolution that can carry with it substantial financial and political risks.

If an initiative is not well conceived or implemented, it can waste resources. If it fails to bring the necessary services, it will only increase people’s frustration. In countries with scarce resources, e-government should be focused on those areas that have a definite potential for success.
In developing countries, e-government also has to grapple with such obstacles as lack of infrastructure, under-developed educational systems, unequal access to technology, and corruption.

Successful e-government, therefore, requires a change in the way the government operates, how it manages information and how its officials interact with the public. It also requires the government to actively co-operate with its citizens and with the private sector. The whole process needs continuous feedback from the public, the companies and the officials who use the services.

Private sector participation can ensure coherence

The Yankee Group, a US consultancy firm, recently published a report called The e-Mexico Opportunity. The report affirms that this is the most ambitious e-government project in the entire Latin American region. It says that e-government will generate important income for the IT industry. In the next four years, the e-Mexico National System will create a demand for £3,865 million-worth of software, hardware and consultancy services.
From 2007, the impact will be even greater as different sectors of information such as e-health, e-learning, e-government and e-economy come on stream. The companies supplying technological services should be involved in planning the projects.

Until July 2002, e-Mexico was still a vision, but it is now emerging as a project with specific objectives and a defined budget. The first phase of the e-Mexico National System’s plan is to establish a telecommunications network connecting the 2,443 municipal regional governments around Mexico. They will receive software to administer their processes through the internet. Mexico’s Central Post Office will function as the network’s operations centre.
The main component of the second phase is the installation of approximately 10,000 community digital centres, which will provide access to personal computers and productivity software, including internet connections.

The third phase of e-Mexico will provide applications for telemedicine, e-learning and other services that will have a positive impact on rural municipalities. Mexico’s satellite and terrestrial connections will facilitate broadband connection and help extend communications among the key districts.
Analysts highlight President Vicente Fox’s role in all this: he has not only met and discussed the project with key figures in the telecommunications industry, but he is the driving force behind the e-Mexico plan.

In 2002, the federal government assigned a budget of £50 million for the implementation of the project’s first objectives, but software and hardware suppliers have also been donated more than generously.
The Secretariat of Communications and Transport’s 2002 programme explicitly showed that contributions from, and close associations with, the telecoms industry will be necessary to ensure the project meets with success.

Analysts stress that private companies should be linked to the e-Mexico National System because, although the government will make the overall decisions, in practice, private sector participation will give coherence and independence to specific parts of the project. The immense potential of e-Mexico for the IT sector is now beginning reveal itself.