24th – 26th May 2001
Shanghai,
People’s Republic of China
Franco Bassanini, Italy
Cabinet Minister for Public Administration, Better
Regulation and e-Government
It is a great honour and pleasure for me to be here
today at the High Level Forum in the Asia-Pacific Region and I would like to
thank Mr. Xu Kuangdi, Mayor of Shanghai, and the Shanghai Municipal People’s
Government for this kind hospitality.
New opportunities opened by
ICTs: role of governments and local
governments
Introduction
New opportunities and challenges opened by ICTs
The growth of net, of the amount of information available, frequency of exchanges and volume of business generated in the new economy is such as to make us to see not only the opportunity but also the responsibility of management of innovation and the challenge of innovative government.
Most new economy sectors seem to be close to the end of their first phase of expansion, which has been mainly dependent on the positive dynamics of the financial markets. We can now see the beginning of a second phase, where entrepreneurs and professionals will focus their energies on the creation of real value and will turn their attention from financial markets to governments.
The most significant consequence of the rapid and discontinuous evolution of the digital economy is that, today, all national governments do acknowledge the need and the urgency of improving administrative effectiveness. . From this perspective e-government is not just the pure technology driven renewal of one of the largest sectors of the old economy. .
The new global scenario requires a radical, pervasive
and rapid innovation in the specific functions and activities of
government. This innovation can be implemented only if all functions and
activities of government are capable of utilising the unprecedented
opportunities offered by digital technology. The change produced today by ICT,
both in the economy and in society, has been compared to the one generated in the 20s and 30s by
electrification. This change marks the beginning of a new era and profoundly
involves institutions and public administrations.
ICT and globalisation
accelerate the diffusion of innovation. Immediate access to the new
knowledge is possible in any part of the world. For developing countries this
is an unmissable opportunity for a leap
in cultural, social and economic development and for the reinforcement of
democracy and the modernisation of public administration. For developed
countries this is an extraordinary resource for consolidating growth, deepening
knowledge and for making democratic government more transparent and
accountable.
The democracies of the world find themselves today in a
strategic passage of their history. The new technologies, particularly the
Internet, are not only deeply changing government, but are going to modify
governance itself, which means all relations between the different stakeholders
and players: interaction between governments and parliaments, private sector,
non-governmental organisations and international and supranational
organisations.
ICT not only enables the electronic delivery to citizens
of information and services which they could already access , but it actually
offers new forms of citizenship. In addition to accessing information and
public services more quickly citizens will also be able to experiment with new
forms of dialogue and participation.
ICT can indeed become a useful tool for re-establishing trust between institutions
and citizens by allowing open discussion of important problems of governance,
thus opening real prospects for the involvement of citizens in the public
decision making process and offering them the possibility of knowing and
evaluating the results of public acts. This will greatly increase the degree of
openness and transparency of all government processes.
However the major issue that arises at international,
national and local level is the
question of the digital divide. A basic tool for democratic participation, like
the net, cannot be reserved just for the few.
Access to the net must be available to all. creating network terminals
in the front offices of public departments certainly helps , but is not enough.
Therefore, the Italian government, acting jointly with business organisations,
is planning to allow the electronic delivery of public services to citizens
through terminals located in private commercial shops all over the country.
Citizens, who are not equipped to get access to the net from home or from the
work place, can use these terminals to interact with any administration, using
the electronic ID card for authentication when necessary. The merchant at the
shop will act as an alternative to a
front line public officer and this will also help in greatly reducing the
personnel costs of the public administration.
Globalisation has actually increased, rather then
decreased, the role of local government institutions, which can now be given
the task of creating the favourable conditions for the competitiveness of
territorial socio-economic systems in the global market place.
There is a relationship between the establishment of the
global networks of finance and electronic commerce and the simultaneous
consolidation of local networks able to link geographical areas which share
common productive, cultural and social characteristics. As a matter of fact the net economy, far
from eliminating the value of social and cultural proximity, in many cases
makes its reconstruction possible in a “virtual” environment.
We could state that the operational paradigm of the
internet, which is based on a pragmatic combination of autonomy and
co-operation, might also suggest to governmental systems the adoption of a
similar model in order to implement the principles of subsidiarity.
Furthermore, the requirement for coordination that in
the past could only be adequately satisfied by centralising decisions on public
policies, can find today an alternative solution in the possibility for peer to
peer coordination enabled by ICT. Federal type models, based on the
dissemination of public decision centres, have been able to ensure the obvious
benefit of proximity of decision centres to the territorial area (mainly in
terms of transparency, accountability and adherence to specific needs) but they
have been paying a high price so far in terms of coordination and compatibility
of the decisions adopted.
Today, ICT enables every decision maker to have, in real
time, the view of compatibility between his own choice and the ones of the
other decision makers involved. This
allows any of them to make conscious decisions that are compatible with those
of other decision makers. Therefore the
plurality of decision makers is no longer a source of anarchy, but an assurance
of adherence to needs and demands of citizens.
Government reform and
e-government - The Italian Case
It is not possible to conceive a programme of “reinventing government” without linking it to a precise strategy for e-government. This has happened in Italy. A country that, in the last 5 years, has undertaken a crucial and organic action of reform and that has realised (among the first in the world) that a strategy based on the use of ICT is instrumental for the whole plan of modernisation of the administrative system.
In view of creating a slimmer but more effective State, a vast programme of privatisation and liberalisation of functions and services has been started. We have reordered the competencies between State administrations, regions and local authorities in favour of the latter on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity and we have put into practice an impressive devolution of tasks and resources to local powers.
We have redesigned the macro organisation of the government, by reducing ministries from 18 to 12, with the aim of improving their consistency and effectiveness and with the attribution of operational tasks to proper agencies.
We have undertaken an action of reform of regulatory systems aiming to simplify procedures
and laws and to reduce the burden of bureaucracy on citizens and business.
We have eliminated 90% of certificates thanks to the
enforcement of self-declarations. With the full implementation of the e-government
action plan we will definitely get rid of all certificates and
self-declarations through the
electronic exchange of data between administrations.
We have created at municipal level one-stop-shops to
serve enterprises in all matters needed to start up new businesses, effectively
reducing to only one the more than forty procedures that were previously
required. We have radically changed the models and the systems of management.
These actions will make our public administration
results and user oriented, closer to citizens, capable of supplying services of
better quality, and more accessible and more efficient. ICTs contribute by
giving operational strength to these objectives.
The Italian e-government Action
plan
With
the e-government action plan (www.funzionepubblica.it), the Italian
Government intends to build the
institutional grounds for the development of a “digital society”, where the new
technologies can play the role of supporting and accelerating the process of
reforming the public sector and of driving local administrations to promote
substantial innovation in the delivery of services to citizens and
businesses.
The Italian e-government action plan intends to
accelerate the process of radical reform and modernisation of public administrations
by massive and systematic employment of ICT: all services for which it is
technically possible will be supplied on-line; citizens will be able to obtain
them via portals, without the need to know which administration provides what
service. The total funding assigned to the plan for 2001 – 2003 equals $ 9 billion allocated to central and local
administrations for the delivery of their services and for the improvement of
internal efficiency.
The plan’s main objective is the achievement by 2002 of electronic interoperability
between all administrations as required for the delivery of integrated
services. The enabling tools of the plan are the electronic ID card for access
to services and the digital signature card for authorisation. The plan involves
all the institutions of the country: regions, provinces, communes, healthcare
centres, chambers of commerce and schools, and assumes that local government
will carry out the front office role, while central government will act as back
office. This redistribution of roles, made possible through co-operative IT, is
absolutely consistent with the devolution of tasks between central and local
authorities that has been accomplished on the basis of the principal of
subsidiarity.
The plan has identified all the actions necessary to
reach three main goals.
The first goal is the one of computerising the delivery
of services to citizens and business, and when necessary integrating the
services of different administrations. In this way we are creating the virtual
public office.
The second is to
allow end users access to public
services and information through the net. In this way public administration
will enter into the house of the citizens, not vice-versa.
The third objective is improving the internal operational efficiency of each administration. In this way we shall be able to cut costs on the public budget and therefore on tax payers.
In our transition towards digital administration we have
already implemented the e-revenue
service with 40 million tax return statements and 200 million related documents
that are forwarded on-line and dealt with electronically every year.
We have introduced the electronic ID card not only to
replace the old ID paper card, with higher level security functions, but also
to be used as a multi-functional, multi-service card. This is the basic tool to
access public services through the net when the subject requesting the service
needs to be identified.
In order to promote the development of electronic
services for citizens and business we have created in 1997 the legal framework
enabling the useof the digital signature card with full legal validity. With
regard to e-procurement we are moving from an initial phase limited to an
on-line catalogue of goods and services toward a true electronic market with
electronic auctions and with online management of all purchasing procedures.
The Italian reforms are still in the complex and
difficult phase of implementation. Resistance is still quite strong. However I
can state, impartially, that it can already be marked as a success. In reforming the Italian system, we have
learned much from the experiences and best practices of other countries and we
have adapted them to the Italian situation. This is one of the main reasons for
the success of our approach. But there are others.
First of all the definition of a clear strategy for
change and the promotion of an organic project in which e-government has had a
crucial role. Secondly, the assumption of strong leadership at the highest
level of government. Our programmes of reform and e-government plans have
always enjoyed the full support of the Italian Prime Minister.
Finally, the search for a correct mix between a strong
leadership at national level and the need to preserve the autonomy of local
government in the choice of solutions that on one side can take into account
the differences, and on the other side
are still suitable for achieving the common goals of the entire system on the basis of the subsidiarity principle.
Local governments role
In
our strategy, local governments are called upon to perform a key role in
organising and managing the interface with citizens and businesses, within a
nation-wide computerised information system of administrations.
Single regions
may undertake innovation plans according to their own vision and strategy.
However they are called upon to promote their own regional network which
interlinks all governmental bodies and area networks on the territory. Regions
are also called to promote the development of initiatives consistent with the
plan, and exchange application services and good practices.
Municipal
governments are the main actors in Italy’s e-government strategy. Their task is
to implement the front-office facilities for the provision of integrated
services to citizens, thus reducing present territorial differences in the
quality of services, and encouraging citizen’s participation in administrative
activities and decision-making processes.
Local
governments are thus facing a double challenge: on one hand to overcome the
delay accrued in the last years; on the other hand to show themselves
capable of playing a leadership role in
the process of renovation and change.
To this extent, a strategic use of ICT demands a strong
commitment by local government in the
development of territorial networks.
That means an approach to ICT which is not limited to the use of
Internet, but aims at delivering innovative services through the web. This
can give further added value to “local
systems”, thus accelerating the process of transforming local public
administrations into agents of development.
We are facing at the start of this century a critical
issue called the digital divide.
New IT developments can cause new inequalities and new
exclusions, but they can also represent the
means of assuring equal opportunity to all women and all men world-wide.
Equal opportunity in quality of life, accessing
knowledge, promoting cultural, economic and social growth, and in exercising
freedom and rights that are the essence of dignity of all human beings.
Therefore a great opportunity for filling in much more important fractures and
divides: hunger, disease, illiteracy, exclusion of women and abuse of children.
ICT
can be a powerful tool to fight old weaknesses and to address divides. Nevertheless, there are some essential
prerequisites, such as introducing ICT infrastructures, literacy and digital
literacy as well as a suitable public policy environment.
We
believe in this “synergetic approach”, which introduces new ICT methods in
traditional policies to reach development goals, such as education and health
care.
Indeed, ICT can become a key instrument in capacity
building programs, in international co-operation, and in building global
bridges.
The digital divide can be quickly eliminated in countries where two fundamental
conditions for any plan for growth and development already exist: basic
literacy and an efficient electrical network.
To build a telecommunication network
is a much easier and quicker operation than to build any other “classical”
infra-structure. ICTs are not expensive, they do not require great amount of
energy, they comply with environmental constraints, and allow the
redistribution of all activities and not just the less valued ones. 100km of
fibre optic cable with a capacity of 100 Terabit per second costs a thousand
times less than 100km of motorway.
Clearly it is necessary to guarantee favourable
environmental conditions: a clear, simple regulatory scenario, open to
investments and competition; political stability and democratic trust; and an
organic and consistent plan for human empowerment of modernisation of the
administration and of development of e-government.
It seems to me that on these grounds it is possible to
outline a new framework and a new frontier for international co-operation. It
is possible to trigger off sound processes of development and growth, that
developing countries can self manage through a co-ordinated, systematic and
massive use of ICT: through e-government.
The new frontier of international co-operation passes
therefore through strategic investments in four sectors. Two of them are the
classical ones: basic literacy for all people and electrification. The other
two are the innovative ones: telephone and telecommunication infrastructures
and computer literacy. The most expensive, the most difficult and complex of
these investments appears to be largely the first and this is the vital
priority for defeating inequality and underdevelopment in the information
society.
Of course, to achieve these benefits, the developing world needs access
to technology, lower costs of access and the training to use it effectively.
Otherwise the digital divide would lead to an ever-widening gap. We must not
allow this to happen. The United Nations is
by now conscious of the enormous relevance of the problem and of the necessity
to face it as soon as possible with resolute and sharp actions.
That
is why initiatives such as the High-level Forum of Shanghai today are of such
importance. I would also like to
remind you of the III Global Forum on Reinventing Government which the Italian
Government hosted in Naples in March 2001. Italy also chose the theme:
fostering democracy and development through e-government. The Global Forum - with 120 delegations from
governments around the world, 15 international organisations, many among the
world leaders in ICT and leaders from the major IT companies, gathered together
the largest knowledge community ever on the themes of administrative reform,
use of ICT and on their implications for democracy and development.
We are convinced that sharing experiences is a strong
factor of improvement and of growth for everybody. This is why, together with
the United Nations, the Italian Government organised prior to the Global Forum
a number of international seminars on e-government
specifically addressed to developing countries and based on peer sharing and
practical education on ICT tools. This
initiative has had great success and I have the pleasure to announce that the
Italian Government plans to repeat it every year in Italy, with the
collaboration of the United Nations and other public and international
institutions. This will offer an instrument for up-dating, deeper
understanding, benchmarking and spread of best practice and will be useful for
both industrialised and non- industrialised countries in order to take
advantages from the constant developments of the innovation technologies.
Italian case studies on digital cities
Indeed, the
ability to create networks among public institutions, businesses and citizens,
and to foster co-operative relations among the different social actors is one
fundamental feature of the present technological revolution.
In a
context in which the very concepts of centre and periphery are questioned by a
space that broadens its borders on the basis of mutual co-operation, the real
challenge consists in conceiving common investment projects.
The
purchase and management of technological infrastructures and an “osmosis” among
different professional competencies in the field of new technologies foster the
implementation of economies of scale and overcomes economical and technological
obstacles.
Ensuring
a better quality of life to citizens, simplifying procedures, thanks to ICT represents for a territorial
area an opportunity to “ market” its resources better than its competitors.
This is ever more a fundamental asset in the economy of a territory and which
local systems begin to count on as a competitive advantage.
On this basis, the Italian Department of Public
Administration, have launched an initiative (“punto.eGovernment”) with the aim
of giving visibility to projects that local public administrations have
realised in using ICT towards a renovation of public service.
The
response to the call for good practice
launched by the “punto.eGovernment” initiative among local public administrations has
been high: more than 400 projects carried out on a local level have been
collected, with two regions, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, playing a leadership
role with more than 25% of projects presented.
I will briefly
summarise the results of our initiative and the most important features of the
good e-government practices implemented by local governments in Italy:
- It seems Provinces and Regional
governments see ICT as an important
instrument in the implementation of the federal design.
- Medium-sized cities confirm their
role in the development of the country also from the point of view of the
introduction of the new technologies for the provision of innovative services.
67% of projects presented by municipalities, indeed, come from medium-sized
cities (50.000 – 300.000 inhabitants). Medium-sized cities appear as an “ideal
cradle also for the development of innovations in the field of e-government”
[Sistemi Infomativi Territoriali - Online
Geographical Information System, City of Siena]. Metropolitan areas and
small cities (under 50.000 inhabitants) are less represented in our survey. The
limited planning of small centres on e-government issues is probably related to
their reduced availability of basic resources and infrastructures. Moreover, a
lack of market pre-conditions (on the
demand side) which justify the investments required, might be another
restraining factor.
- In 74% of projects presented by
administrations, project implementation and management has required the
creation of dedicated teams. . This demonstrates that internal co-operation
within different organisational structures is conceived as a chief factor not
only in order to accelerate innovation planning and testing stages, but indeed
their implementation and management.
- The opportunity is emerging to create
a “uniform computerised place” which promotes and fosters communication and
interaction between administrations and all different social/institutional
actors in a territory. The attitude to strengthen
co-operation among administrations drives public administrations towards a
progressive interdependence – even though not always an easy one -, where
“implementation and management of decentralised services becomes possible
thanks to a dedicated site”. [I.D.E.A.,
City of Livorno].
- There is a new choice of assigning to existing or new
public subjects, the function of promoting and experimenting an ICT development
as support to territorial government. In most cases these subjects are public
owned companies which, as operating on a partnership basis, are committed to
planning, implementing and managing innovative services to citizens and firms.
A solution which allows administration to satisfactorily match social demand.
[Carta di identità eletronica, URP on line,
Sportello Unico per le imprese e i cittadini - Electronic I.D. Card, Office for
Relations with citizens online, One-stop-shop, A.S.I. SpA-City of Mantova]
- The access issue and the underlying
attention to relations with citizens, is the focus of 63% of e-government
projects presented by local public administrations. ICTs are meant not only to
integrate but indeed to completely substitute traditional, consolidated ways of
delivering services, giving citizens “the possibility to access and interact
with public administration on 24/7 basis, without queuing or wasting time” [ Dalla macchina da scrivere al sito internet
– From Typewriter to Internet Web Site, Municipality of Chioggia ]
- Initiatives aimed to foster and
enhance civic participation and interaction are spreading among local
administrations. Some experiments of online citizen consultation are based on
“video-chat which allows to start a direct dialogue with citizens on particular
events” [ Sistemi multimediali on line
- Online Multimedia Systems, City
of Florence ] or, instead, on “open discussion fora and mailing lists conceived
as means for a participated democracy and shared governance” [Rete delle città – City Network, City of
Naples ]. Even though still at an experimental level, also the development of
telematic polling appears interesting.
- A comprehensive overview of the
projects collected by “punto.eGovernment” reveals still scant attention to
disadvantaged users (less than 2% of projects deals with this item). Whereas
the benefits that will accrue to disabled people or other disadvantaged
categories (citizens excluded from labour and education) from the Information
Society are such as to demand a greater attention to these opportunities. In
this challenge, a key factor is the necessity to devote specific energies to
remove the obstacles which still prevent – because of poverty, lack of
information or education – a full participation of everybody inthe change under way. The availability of
personal computers in schools, libraries and, in general, front-office departments
can contribute, together with a diffuse action of education, in granting a full
access to services.
- There is a new commitment by local
government on development issues. Local public administrations are increasingly
involved in a strategic planning process (13% of projects presented) whose last
objective is valuing and promoting the reference area as a whole taking
advantage of the possibilities offered by the new technologies and the
web. The opportunity to promote
co-operative strategies among different social, economical and institutional
actors – now fostered by new technologies – on a long-term horizon seems to
encourage a “real bargaining that involves most of the stakeholders on
objectives that often regard a wider area than the municipal territory” [Piano strategico per la promozione della
città – City Promotion Strategic Plan,
City of Turin ].
- Opportunities offered by ICT are
raising interest on the issues related to the accessibility and possibility of
exploitation of territorial resources.
The
re-organization of the information systems in order to make available knowledge
on a larger extent indeed fosters “a diffuse involvement and participation of
all citizens to protect and safeguard their own territory” [Gestione emergenze incendi e monitoraggio
patrimonio boschivo – Fire Emergencies Management and Wood Monitoring,
Province of Lecce; Osservatorio rifiuti
– Waste Observatory, Province of
Bergamo ].
- To many local authorities in Italy
tourism represents one of the main levers on which to found or enhance local
territorial development. “Making available to Internet navigators and to people
who address to Tourist Information Points useful information regarding hotels,
city transports, museums” [Accogliere i
pellegrini – Welcoming Pilgrims, City of Florence] represents a useful
commodity – generated from the new partnerships between public and
private. However, the creation of territorial value added through the web is
not only a matter of tourism. As far as a use of the web to promote local
resources is concerned, administrations share opportunities offered for
sustaining both tourism and local entrepreneurial initiative.
- Many local governments are running
their own courses of action with respect to active labour market policies, taking
advantage of opportunities offered by the new technologies. Telework (or
distance work) deserves a particular attention, as it can represent an
important field for those administrations committed to creating new job
opportunities through the use of technologies, in order to overcome any
difficulty of moving and communication.
- A model of interactive
customer/administration relations, from information to transactions, can be
effectively implemented through a portal system (more than 40% of projects deal
with portals). The one-stop-shop providing citizens with integrated services
represent a real alternative to moving to public offices. The next step should
be to create safe and reliable transaction systems, which allow citizens to cut
out costs on the purchase of goods and
services. Through portals it is possible to “query public data banks, thus
allowing professionals and different governmental bodies to have a complete
overview on building projects presented” [ Pratiche
edilizie on line–Building Practices Online, City of Padova] or even to set
up “an integrated system of civic registers that enables the consultation of
archives according to any identified user profile” [ Visure anagrafiche on line - Civil Status Register Consultation Online,
City of Grosseto ]. Another opportunity that administrations are exploring is
to implement portals which offer
“integrated property register data by gathering within the same data
base all information regarding single real estate units on municipal territory”
[Catasto immobiliare – Real Estate
Register, City of Siena ].
However, a real
response to citizens’ demand for a diffuse availability of innovative services
– which can be delivered regardless of one’s own geographical location and
independently from any necessity of moving – will be realized mainly through
the promotion of smart cards. Nowadays, 18% of projects presented for the
“punto.eGovernment” initiative deals with the smart card and digital signature
issues.