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The Singapore Government's Chief Information Officer discusses with eGov monitor the approach behind what is one of the world's most advanced and innovative examples of citizen-centric, efficient eGovernment delivery.

Can you give us a brief overview of Singapore government's policy and approach towards eGovernment?

Singapore's journey in eGovernment began as early as 1980 with the launch of Civil Service Computerisation Programme (CSCP), which was a key component of the National Computerisation Plan. Since then, the CSCP has evolved with each national IT plan, bringing about exciting changes to the way the Singapore Government works internally, interacts with and serves the public.

The first eGovernment Action Plan, which aimed to be a leading eGovernment to better serve the nation in the digital economy, was launched in 2000. The second eGovernment Action Plan was unveiled in 2003, and it aimed to further spur the transformation of the public service into a networked government that delivers accessible, integrated and value-added e-services to our customers and helps bring citizens closer together.

The Singapore Government Online and the eCitizen portals were launched in October 2004. What has been the impact of these cross governmental service channels on eGovernment in Singapore?

The eCitizen portal was launched in 1999. It was the first-stop for government services on the web. The content was organised with the needs of the citizens and customers in mind, to deliver greater convenience and benefits to all individuals who live, work and play in Singapore.

The eCitizen portal was revamped and subsumed under the Singapore Government online portal when the Singapore Government online portal was launched in October 2004. The Singapore Government online portal is a customer-centric gateway to access government services and information online. The intent is to streamline information and e-services, while catering for the needs of different customer segments. Once again, it underlines our customer-centric approach to e-services.

Today, we have seen a growing number of online services that cut across different government agencies. One of which is the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS). The OBLS is a pioneering effort to integrate 69 licences from 20 government agencies so as to provide a one-stop shop for new company/business registrations and licence applications. Through the OBLS, businesses will be able to apply for new licences, renew existing licences, update licence information, as well as terminate business licences. With integration, businesses now enjoy shorter waiting time for the approval of their licence(s). The average processing time has reduced from 21 days to 12.5 days.

One of the most ambitious initiatives that the Singapore Government has embarked on is the 3PI (Public-Private-People Integration). Can you tell us more about this unique project and when do you expect implementation to begin?

3P Integration, or 3PI, is not a standalone project. 3PI represents the next level of service delivery, through cross-boundary integration of people, private and public services, to provide a complete service or online experience for the user. Agencies will be challenged to get out of their silo-thinking and to look actively for service integration opportunities - "Start with the User in Mind."

The national electronic bill payment hub, which will be implemented over a two-year period, is an example of a 3PI project. It will bring together players from different sectors to establish a national electronic bills payment hub that provides open access to all service providers and users in Singapore. The Electronic Bill Payment Hub is a vital component to bring about widespread adoption of e-commerce. Work is in progress for a request for proposal (RFP) to select a private sector operator to implement and operate this national electronic bills payment hub.

To ensure citizens can access secure eGov transactional services, Singapore Government has launched its SingPass. How does this operate and how successful has it been?

SingPass stands for "Singapore Personal Access". It is an alphanumeric password of between 8 to 24 characters. SingPass is a common password to allow citizens to transact with any Government online services. It was first implemented in December 2002.

Today, there are 112 Government online services that use SingPass for authentication. SingPass has also proven to be popular among Singaporeans. In 2003, there were 4.5 million SingPass authentication transactions and in 2004, the figure increased significantly to 7.9 million.

Can you give us some insight into the marketing efforts you have undertaken to increase take up of eGovernment services?

There are two key strategies – increasing public awareness and helping those who have no access to the internet.

An important strategy is the public education campaign to increase public awareness of the content and services that are available online and the benefits of going online. This is done through various communication channels, such as advertorials on print media. To reach out to more people, we also organised events such as trade shows, road shows and public exhibitions.

Another important strategy is to help those who have no access to the internet. The eCitizen Helper Programme aims to provide Singaporeans with the means to transact electronically at designated eCitizen helper locations. If they need someone to show them how to use the e-services, our eCitizen helpers can lend a hand too. With 83 eCitizen helper outlets around Singapore and more than one thousand helpers on these locations to assist Singaporeans in Government online transactions, we are definitely going all out to help our citizens get online.

On the whole, we have done well in encouraging our citizens to go online in transacting with the Government. To date, we have about 1,600 public services available online. And these online services have proven to be popular among Singaporeans. Based on the eGovernment perception survey conducted by ACNielsen on February 2004, 73% of Singaporeans transacted with the Government electronically at least once in past twelve months.

Finally, what insight and suggestions would you have for other government CIO's in their respective countries?

eGovernment is about "government", not "e". Technologies have the potential to transform the way government agencies work amongst themselves, the way governments deliver services to our customers, and the way governments engage the citizens and businesses. But policy development, business operations and service delivery should drive how technologies are adopted by governments. Technology innovations alone cannot drive technology investments.

The Government CIO cannot operate alone. He needs to understand the business, operations and service delivery needs. He needs to actively engage the various stakeholders in government, at all levels. He needs to be a strong advocate of how technologies can transform operations and service delivery. In current environments, the Government CIO has to create value from government investments in technologies, and concurrently lower the costs of IT. Quite a tall order.

The Government CIO is in a unique position to create synergy across agencies, work with them to implement processes and systems that integrate across agencies and deliver integrated one-stop services to citizens and businesses. The Government CIO needs to create governance structures that allow agencies to work together on common and shared systems and services, promote coordination and collaboration, with the ultimate goal of realising the vision of a "networked government". A most challenging and exciting job.