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Sameer SharmaSenior Advisor

ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Session 1: Transparent & Effective Governance in the

Digital Age

ITU Asia-Pacific Regional Development Forum

16-18 May 2012Bangkok Thailand

InternationalTelecommunicationUnion

Agenda

ICT Growth & Infrastructure

Transparent & Effective Governance

How ICT can Enhance Good Governance?

Conclusions and Way Forward

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Universal Access To Mobile & Growth of Broadband

With 5.9 billion mobile-cellularsubscriptions, global penetration reaches 87%, and 79% in the developingworld.

Mobile-broadband subscriptions have grown 45% annually over the last four years and today there are twice as many mobile-broadband as fixed broadbandsubscriptions.

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Growing Internet Users Around the World

The world is home to 7 billion people, one third of which are using the Internet. 45% of the world’s Internet users are below the age of 25.

Over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the world’s total number of Internet users from 44% in 2006, to 62% in 2011.

Today, Internet users in China represent almost 25% of the world’s total Internet users and 37% of the developing countries’ Internet users.

While the broadband prices are decreasing, Digital divide remains!

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Source: ITU Measuring the Information Society (2011)

6Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database.

Growth Going Mobile….

Mobile broadband is on the rise…..

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“In the 21st century, affordable broadband access to the Internet is becoming as vital to social and economic development as networks like transport, water and power”

– Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General

Investment in Broadband Networks Shows to Deliver Greatest Benefits On GDP Growth

Source: Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang and Carlo M. Rossotto with Kaoru Kimura, Chapter 3 Economic Impacts of Broadband, in World Bank, Information and Communication for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact (IC4D2009).

Examples of technologies

A 10 percent increase in fixed teledensity has a 0.5 percent increase in GDP

Additional benefits that are not quantified by WB

• Significant qualitative and social benefits that are likely to result from

wider telecommunications and broadband adoption

World Bank estimatedbroadband boost is consistentwith specific country studies

A 10 percent increase in mobile teledensity has a 0.7 percent increase in GDP

A 10 percent increase in broadband penetration boosts GDP by 1.3 percent!

BUT

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Impact of Broadband on InnovationInnovation efficiency vs. broadband penetration Innovation efficiency vs. broadband

penetration ratio

Source: World Economic Forum

Broadband facilitates innovation and entrepreneurship

Countries with a higher penetration see greater innovation

Broadband stokes innovation and it does so exponentially

ICT Development Index (IDI) 2010 E-Government Development Leaders 2012

Infrastructure /e-Governance Readiness

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2015 Broadband TargetsBroadband Leadership Summit 2011

Enhancing access to broadband

All countries should have a national broadband plan or strategy or include broadband in their Universal Access / Service Definitions.

Entry-level broadband services should be made affordable in developing countries through adequate regulation and market forces (amounting to less than 5% of average monthly income).

40% of households in developing countries should have Internet access.

Internet user penetration should reach 60% worldwide, 50% in developing countries and 15% in LDCs.

Making broadband policy universal.

Making broadbandaffordable

Connecting homes to broadband

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ITU Mandate for ICT Infrastructure WSIS Action Line C2 considers Information and

Communication Infrastructure “an essential foundation for the information society”

World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-2010) held in Hyderabad (India) from 24 May to 4 June 2010 adopted, Programme 1: "Information and Communication Infrastructure and Technology Development”

WTDC-2010 includes Regional Initiative for Asia-Pacific on Broadband access and uptake in urban and rural areas

At least 110 governments have already adopted a national policy, strategy or plan to promote broadband

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1. What will be the role of ICT infrastructure and technologies to enhance effective and transparent governance?

2. What are the roles of policy-makers, regulators and industry to ensure the good and transparent governance?

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Transparent & Effective Governance

Openness and transparency of government are key pillars of democracy that pre-date the Internet. Data produced and collected by the government are the basic ingredients for governments to provide services, make policy, and be held accountable for their performance.

Efficiently managing this information is essential to effective governance, especially since most citizen interactions with government generate information.

Programme 2 (WTDC 2010) supports countries in improving access to ICT applications and services, especially in underserved and rural areas, achieving trust and confidence in the use of ICTs, the Internet and next-generation networks, promoting fair and equitable access to critical Internet resources.

161 countries and territories had a national e-strategy in place by April 2010, with another 14 countries and territories in the process of formulating a national e- strategy indicating sound basis for promoting transparent governance for public good.

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ITU e-Government Implementation Toolkit

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Transparent & Effective Governance-II

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Four dimensions of the e-Government environment

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Transparent & Effective Governance-III

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Relationship between broadband penetration and citizen uptake of e-government services

1. What are the challenges and opportunities of good and transparent governance through ICT?2. What are the necessary policy drivers that could create incentives for investment in infrastructure for

delivering e-government services?3. Apart from governments playing the catalytic role through national e-strategies, how could the private

sector contribute towards efficiency and effectiveness for delivery of e-services?

InternationalTelecommunicationUnion

How ICT can Enhance Good Governance? As telecommunication/ICT networks are deployed,

governments are better able to provide e-government

services to their citizens, which improve transparency,

accountability, utilization of resources and access to

governmental services, including health and education.

In 2012, the United Nations e-government assessment

focused on the concept of integrated services that exploit

inter-linkages among different public services on a

functionally and/or thematically similar one-stop-shop portal,

thereby improving and facilitating citizen experience, allowing

for back office integration across governmental departments

and strengthening institutional arrangements.

Single sign-on integrated services on portals can

organizationally transform public service delivery at both the

front and the back end.

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How ICT can Enhance Good Governance-II

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Countries with government websites linking to national portal Policy Information Online

The 2012 Survey finds that many Member States are moving from a decentralized single-purpose organization model, to an integrated unified whole of- government model, contributing to efficiency and effectiveness.

1. What are the most effective ways to enhance efficiencies of delivery of public services and how the delivery time can be reduced using suitable infrastructure / applications?

2. What are the expectations from the citizens from governance perspective and how the governments can enhance its responsiveness to the citizens?

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Conclusions and Way Forward

The goal of using and disseminating ICT is to bring benefits in all aspects of our daily life, and that ICT Infrastructure is enormously important in facilitating citizens' access to these applications

Efficient use and deployment of suitable e-government services to improve efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery and to promote development for the people helps governments use available resources to their best advantage, this contributing to economic sustainability.

E-Government development efforts to deliver end to end services using single portal has proved to be effective and efficient mechanism to deliver transparent government to consumer services and other related services.

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What are the key developmental future priorities and initiatives for Asia-Pacific Region for next five years, where ICTs – its infrastructure and technologies in particular - could play catalytic role?

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ITU : http://www.itu.intITU Asia Pacific : http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/asp/CMS/index.asp

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Thank

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