New Straits Times
03-23-2000
GITN to speed up e-govt implementation
Byline: Ridzuan A. Ghani
Edition: Computimes; 2*
Section: Business News
THE Government Integrated Telecommunications Network (GITN) would serve as an ideal platform to speed up the electronic government (e- government) implementation among agencies in the public sector.
According to chief secretary to the Government Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali, the network facilitates information-sharing intra- and inter- agency by providing members in the GITN community immediate linkage to all other agencies involved in the e-government initiative.
He said GITN also provides a shared and integrated platform for Government agencies to render more effective communication in a timely and secured manner, and thus will help them to enhance service delivery to the clients and general public. "This also gives cost- saving investments for networks and operations. They (Government agencies) can also improvise their effectiveness and efficiencies plus better accuracy and faster information delivery, reduce data duplication and perk data sharing," said Halim.
Halim stressed that the key elements in data sharing through GITN are speed and security. The traditional route of accessing certain data from other agencies will no longer be in multiple steps but just a single click away.
He added that although the accessibility feature is being promoted, security and confidentiality can never be compromised in the Government's operations. "Basically, only a limited number of people will be allowed to the information," said Halim who was speaking to the reporters after witnessing the signing ceremony between GITN Sdn Bhd (GSB) and 10 Government bodies on the formalisation of GITN implementation for the agencies.
Present at the event were GSB's chairman Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman, Malaysian Administrative and Manpower Planning Unit (Mampu)'s director general Datuk Dr Muhammad Rais Abdul Karim, and Malaysian Department of Statistics' chief statistician Shaari Abdul Rahman.
GSB provides intranet facilities for each Government agency by adopting the concept of virtual private network (VPN) for intra- agency communications. Each of the VPNs is built upon the extensive nationwide GITN high-speed frame relay network and secured Government intranet infrastructure.
The company is entrusted to implement and manage GITN for Government agencies as a platform for the e-government application under the Multimedia Super Corridor project. Hamad said through the collaboration, the agencies will also be given value-added services such as Web-hosting, Internet mail hosting, bulletin board, discussion forums, circular database and video-on-demand. He added that GSB helps to promote the development of content and network- centric applications for use by the agencies.
"Through the group set-up, we are gauging our role as provider of higher quality product offerings and services, which would in turn encourage more Government agencies to be linked to GITN," Hamad explained.
In conjunction with the event, the GITN User Society (GeniUS), a non- commercial organisation designed to create a common platform for GITN users to exchange ideas and organise meaningful IT programmes, was launched.
Illustrations/Photos:
Caption: It's official: Halim (left) launching GeniUS while Hamad,
Shaari and Muhammad Rais look on.
(Copyright 2000)
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