VietNamNet Bridge – The municipal administration plans to spend VND300 billion (US$14.3 million) this year on further developing E-governance in HCM City.
This is three times the investment made in 2012, the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper said in a report on Saturday.
This huge investment from the State budget for application of information technology in 2013 offers a “golden opportunity” for the city’s efforts to build and develop its E-Government, the report cited Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of HCM City Department of Information and Communications, as saying.
In the 2005-2012 period, the city authority has carried out 1,012 IT projects with a total investment of VND665 billion ($32.7 million), meaning an average invesment of VND83 billion per year to develop E-governance.
Tuan said these investments were used to develop IT infrastructure including hardware and software, data bases and to train staff in 64 State departments and agencies.
The IT projects have helped created email addresses for nearly 11,000 Government officials and 80 websites for Government agencies in the city.
They have helped the city win official recognition as the State agency at the city/province as well as the district levels to have applied IT most effectively.
However, the investments in IT applications of previous years were inadequate, Tuan said, adding that machinery and equipment at several agencies have become outdated and had to be updated.
With the new investment outlay for this year, the Department of Information and Communications plans to replace outdated machinery and equipment, creating the most favourable conditions for people and businesses to contact State agencies and district authorities.
In particular, it plans to pay greater attention to network security.
The city authorities will mobilise medium and small IT enterprises to take part in these projects, instead of inviting big companies as it has done in previous years.
Tuan also said that a conference to review IT application at State agencies and district administrations will be held in mid-April.
Source: VNS