E-Communities – The Challenge for Central and Local Government

Good morning and thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.

The theme for your conference is “e-communities” and today I would like to talk to you about how government is responding to the challenge of enabling and facilitating the development of “e-communities” in New Zealand.

I propose to start by looking at some of the features of the new information economy, some of the drivers for the development of “e-communities” and then outline how the Government is responding to this challenge.

The new economy poses particular challenges for both central and local government. The key to meeting these challenges is for us to work together for the benefit of the people of New Zealand.

ICT technologies and the new applications based on them provide new opportunities for developing citizen-centered and community-centered services – shifting the power from agency to individual and community.

Just as e-commerce has placed the customer at the centre of new business models, e-government has the capability of placing the e-citizen – the ratepayers and the taxpayers - at the centre of government. Here the ‘e’ stands for both ‘empowered’ and ‘electronic’.

Speedy and timely access to information is the key. Improved quality of service, delivered to the home and community is the outcome. On-line government should enhance links between individuals and their communities, and between communities.

We are amongst the world leaders in terms of our Internet use, and top users of Internet banking and online travel. We have passed the point where access to computer technology in the home was the exception – it is now the norm. More than fifty percent of homes now have computers and more than 40% have access to the Internet. One recent survey by the company Taylor Wilson Sofres found that 71% of New Zealanders had used the Internet in the previous month – the highest proportion found for any of 31 countries they have looked at.

When people come online they expect information and services at their fingertips. Today we are able to check our exam results or buy our groceries at the click of a mouse.

We have come to expect the same instant service from government agencies.

This represents a significant culture change. And it must also drive a radical change in government through the growing public demand for online government services.

There are many examples of how both local and central government can use technology to interact more efficiently with citizens. In education it’s important that students, wherever they live in New Zealand, can access the same courses accessible to city students. This is one of the objective’s of Project PROBE, which I’ll talk about later.

The internet has the potential to vastly improve the delivery of health services in rural areas. A doctor in Gisborne, for example, could be looking at a patient’s x-ray at the same time as a colleague in Wellington.

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Farmers are embracing the new technology, receiving real-time information on the quality of their milk and an estimated payment as soon as it arrives at the dairy factory. They can use this information to compare the quality of their milk with other farmers in the district or around the country. Ordering supplies online and participating in online auctions are major time-savers. As well as this farmers can get access to lots of information via the internet to help them manage their farms better on a day-to-day basis. The organizers of the next Agricultural Field Days at Mystery Creek have chosen e-farming as their theme for next year.

In the area of tax Inland Revenue has recently announced its e-enablement strategy, which includes, among other things, a pilot scheme enabling taxpayers to pay their GST online at anytime from anywhere they have access to the internet.

Making effective use of the Internet to make e-local government a reality is not something that necessarily requires huge expenditure, although it does take imagination, dedicated resource and a culture that recognises the on-line environment. One outcome should be not only better services but savings in time and administration costs for everyone. For example moving the resource consents process online has the potential to speed up that process.

There are many local authorities around the county who realise the potential of the Internet to improve their services. A good example is the Hurunui District Council’s web site. As you can see this is pretty much as rural as New Zealand can get. And yet this is a great example of using the Web not just to enhance services but to drive them. As one example, Look at the ‘consulting on’ link – anyone can provide direct online feedback on current issues.

Government has a number of roles to play in helping all New Zealanders take advantage of new technology. The government has to ensure that there is support through legislation and regulatory measures. The Telecommunications Commissioner was established 12 months ago with the passage of the Telecommunications Act and has recently issued his first decision, which regulates the cost of interconnection with Telecom’s network.

In terms of today’s topic, of greater significance perhaps, is that itcan provide leadership – it needs to initiate and be involved in activities and projects which demonstrate commitment and direction. One excellent recent example is the e-government portal.

The government can also ensure that supporting infrastructure is available. Project PROBE is intended to ensure that all schools and their communities can access the broadband facilities they need.

I now want to talk about two of the areas where partnering with Local Government is of particular importance: the e-government programme and Project PROBE.

E-Government

The e-government strategy launched in April 2000 passed a major milestone last week with the launch of the e-government portal, a one-stop-shop allowing the public easy and quick access to a vast range of central and local government information and services. The portal links about 90 agencies and delivers access to over 1100 services provided by government. It also provides links to the web sites of local authorities around the country. Of course, this project is not complete. Information is continually being added to the site and over time its content and reach will be enriched and extended.

E-government allows us to think in terms of the e-citizen and in terms of ‘citizen-centered’ government, where services are provided in ways suited to people rather than to suit the agencies providing them.

In the future local government may be able to use e-voting technology to run online elections. This technology is already being used by organisations for internal voting. Obviously there are security concerns but these are not insurmountable.

Another e-government milestone passed this year was the issuing of the draft Government Web Guidelines which detail how web sites should be built so that everyone can use them. Under the guidelines portal pages must load within 2 seconds over a slow 9,600 Kbps link. The government portal is also ‘disabled enabled’. All information has to be able to be read by the sight impaired who rely on text to voice translators.

This behind-the-scenes work is not at the sexy end of e-government. But it is very important. Overseas experience has shown that we need to get the ‘basics’ right before we can move to the more visible and exciting stages of e-government.

A key development leading to the portal was the development of the New Zealand Government Locator Service Metadata Standard.

The standard aims to ensure that there are consistent descriptors for the same categories of information and services referenced by government agencies. This helps to eliminate confusion - for example , between terms such as ‘dog licence’ and ‘canine registration’ - and facilitates ease of use for the user.

It is vitally important that this work be extended into local government and that the portal is not just seen as a central government portal. Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) hosts an E-Local Government Project Team, which is working to encourage e-government amongst local authorities. The group liases with officials from the IT Policy group of MED and the SSC E-government Unit. As we have seen, some local authorities are implementing e-government strategies now with great success, and they are already working with the E-government Unit and the Portal. This work needs to be extended.

GoProcure – the E-Procurement Programme

GoProcure is a whole-of-government e-procurement system, intended to go live in early 2003, at an estimated annual cost saving to government agencies of at least $6.5 million.

Government departments, and many Crown entities, will use GoProcure to buy goods and services from on-line catalogues with orders being automatically sent to suppliers. E-procurement will mean that suppliers will find it easier and cheaper to deal with government.

Two key issues with E-Procurement. Firstly it should bring down the cost of doing government. Secondly, and equally as important, it provides better opportunities for New Zealand businesses to supply goods and services to government. The government is about 30% of the economy. We buy a lot of things like paper clips and uniforms. The vast majority of SMEs either can’t or don’t know how to get access to the government procurement process.

GoProcure will allow this. However with this carrot comes a stick. In future the government’s procurement will only be done electronically. So the message to business is – get online or miss out.

Businesses only need to maintain one catalogue and interface, to sell electronically to all government agencies. This compares with the alternative approach of suppliers building links to many government agencies individually.

The GoProcure first phase will run through to October 2003 and is likely to involve five departments and Crown entities. From November 2003 GoProcure will be progressively rolled out to all other departments and large Crown entities.

This is part of the government’s e-commerce strategy announced in 2000. It will encourage New Zealand businesses to go on-line, and compete for other e-commerce business opportunities in New Zealand and overseas.

PROBE

E-Communities need fast internet access. Making sure that we have first-class telecommunications infrastructure throughout New Zealand, not just in the cities is a goal of this government and with the Broadband Project, or Project PROBE, we have put our money where our mouth is in terms of making it happen.

Under the project the government has set a goal of providing all New Zealand communities with access to broadband by the end of 2004. Tens of millions of dollars have been set aside in the budget for the PROBE project.

PROBE is intended to ensure that all schools, in particular rural schools, will have sufficient bandwidth to provide all students with access to the curriculum. The bandwidth will also be available to others in the communities - libraries, farmers, businesses, local government, marae, health agencies, community services and home users.

In terms of regional economic development it is clear that broadband deployment is perceived as being at the same level of importance as roading, power and other key infrastructures.

A recent survey has shown that most regions see availability of broadband as being the single most important factor in economic development, and regional broadband pilots have shown that demand in New Zealand for high-speed internet access is rapidly increasing, as is the capability to use it. The education sector's projected demand for broadband positions it well to lead the rollout of broadband into regions where it has not been previously available.

There are many examples of why the regions place such high importance on broadband, some of which I’ve talked about already. But I’d like to give you a few more examples.

In Tuatapere seven students at the local school wanted to study accounting. Unfortunately they didn’t have a specialist accounting teacher. To remedy the problem the local community stumped up with enough money, and built a new tower, to get a wireless link into the school provided by Vodafone and BCL. Those students in Tuatapere are now taught accounting over the internet by a teacher in Christchurch. That’s the kind of thing that PROBE is designed to achieve.

Another example is the opthamologist who wants to live in Wanaka. With a high-speed internet link he’s able to send eye scans from his practice to Dunedin for peer review and diagnosis.

Broadband access will be of huge benefit to rural and remote regions of New
Zealand. For farmers with reasonable dial-up access today the FencePost website is a great example of delivery of service remotely. I am told that the weather forecast service is one of the most heavily used web services in the country.

A secondary objective of PROBE is to increase levels of competition in the telecommunications sector outside of the main metropolitan areas.

The PROBE budget is to allow for a level of underwriting of the costs of new infrastructure in order to minimise the commercial risk to telecommunications operators and to provide some opportunity for new operators to enter the market.

Despite no money having been spent at this stage, Probe has already had a considerable impact on the telecommunications market and competition levels
have increased markedly. There is a high level of interest from suppliers, many of whom are new to this sector. New entrants include wireless and satellite operators but also power line companies looking to develop new business models. In some regions new start-up operators are being formed, backed by local authorities, community trusts and private sector groups, offering new business models for the provision of services.

Under PROBE, the country has been split into 14 regions with each having a separate tender process. Southland has been first off the block and has chosen a consortium of Vodafone and Walker Wireless as its preferred tenderer. This is a huge breakthrough for the region as it will for the first time introduce genuine competition throughout the province and give all Southlanders access to 21st century telecommunications.

By having 14 separate tenders, PROBE will allow for regional priorities to be recognised in the tendering process. Where regions have resources that can be added to what the government is able to provide, the tendering process will allow for additional requirements to be included.

All responses will be assessed independently on a region-by-region basis taking into account predetermined criteria and any regional aspirations. Recommendations for preferred suppliers will be discussed with regional representatives on a confidential basis with a view to seeking their endorsement on these recommendations before any decisions are made.

So where are we currently at with PROBE? The government issued the Request For Information in late July and has received responses from 30 potential suppliers. A third of these responses covered more than one region.

It is planned that the Requests For Proposals will go out before the end of the year. There will be a closing date for responses early next year. Hopefully work should begin soon after that.

ICT Taskforce

Finally, I know that all of you here have an interest in ICT and the benefits it can bring to our economy. Last week, I released the report of the Information and Communications Technologies Taskforce..

The ICT Taskforce is one of three taskforces – the others are biotechnology and creative industries – announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark in February, as part of the Government’s Innovation Framework.

As Minister for Information Technology I convened the taskforce in May. After a series of concentrated meetings it has produced its ‘Breaking Through the Barriers’ report last week. I’m very excited by the report as it contains challenging goals and concrete recommendations, which provide flesh to the Government’s Framework.

Currently the ICT industry accounts for 4.3% of New Zealand’s GDP. If we are to achieve our goal of getting back into the top half of the OECD, then the industry ‘s contribution will need to be more like 10% of GDP.

To this end, the report sets the goal of New Zealand producing 100 additional ICT companies each doing over $100 million in sales per year by 2012. Currently we have 16 ICT companies doing more than $100 million in annual sales so this is a big jump. The taskforce has given us a wake up call. We need to focus on this target and get serious about making it happen

Over the next few months we are looking for feedback on the report from the industry and any other interested persons. I’d like to encourage all of you to read the report and send us your comments.
The report is available on the net at: www.industrytaskforces.govt.nz. Comments can be sent via email to: ict@industrytaskforces.govt.nz or via post to:

ICT Taskforce Have Your Say
PO Box 2878
Wellington

Conclusion

In conclusion, enabling and facilitating the development of e-communities in New Zealand poses challenges for both local and central government. However, it is important that government respond to these challenges to ensure that all New Zealand citizens are able to participate in and benefit from the new information economy. For government this includes showing leadership in the area of e-government and assisting with the roll-out of broadband to all communities in New Zealand by 2004.

As part of our e-government programme we need to move the quality of government services to the citizen to a higher level so that services are both cheaper and more easily accessed. The provision of government services through e-government needs to be responsive to customer needs so that governments are seen to be taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by ICT, and responding to the changing demands of citizens..

I believe the future for New Zealand in the new information economy is an exciting one . It is important that we – both central and local government – work together to help realise its full potential in New Zealand.