“THE ROLE OF E-GOVERNMENT in SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT”

1. “THE ROLE OF E-GOVERNMENT in SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT” eGovernment for Sustainable Development subgroup First annual report Andreea STOICIU The coordinator of the sub-group on “eGovernment for Sustainable Development”

2. The subgroup “was born” on the 12th of May 2010 First year objectives: • Increasing national and international cooperation and public interest in the usage of electronic public services • Promoting the implementation of green IT and acknowledgement of e-Governance as key factor in sustainable development • The usage of new technologies as instruments for accomplishing our objectives

3. What we have accomplished (the activities): • Setting up of an effective institutional structure for more efficient actions - IMDD • Developing Partnerships • Creating www.egovdev.ro – our webpage • Researching the status and the trends of e-Government for sustainable development • Conducting an international survey • Organizing the high-level workshop “The role of electronic governance for sustainable development”

4. 1. The institutional structure and coordinator in Romania – IMDD: • Early last year we completed setting up the Institute of Management and Sustainable Development (IMDD) as the local coordinator of C7- e-Government for sustainable development subgroup. • A team of professionals has been gathered up in order to develop the subgroup programs and projects, both locally and internationally.

5. IMDD website: www.imdd.ro 2. Partnerships: We developed Partnerships with key players from different sectors: • public, • private, • NGOs, • universities, both Romanian and regional, in order to promote our activity.

6. 3. www.egovdev.ro

7. You can find us on Facebook:

8. 4. Researching the status and the trends of e-Government for sustainable development: One crucial factor for the success of such activities is efficient cooperation of all relevant key players in e-Government and sustainable development fields, both locally and internationally. So we have initiated a cooperation project between public and private key players in order to determinate the needs and expectations regarding the implementation of intelligent applications in public administration sector and e-Services in terms of sustainable development.

9. 5. About the survey Purpose: • To evaluate the present perception upon the necessity and the recognition of the sustainable development • To measure the level of the implementation and the usage of the electronic public services, the way it is perceived by the citizens, private sector and public administration • To evaluate the expectations on interconnectivity and interoperability of electronic systems, national and international cooperation, governance transparency and acknowledgement of sustainable development principles

10. About the survey: • 22 April – 4 May 2011 • 25 questions • on-line • bilingual: English and Romanian • 674 respondents • segmentation: - individuals - NGOs - SMEs - large enterprises - local and central public authorities - education and research institutes ?

11. ENTERPRISES CITIZENS Digital community Interoperability and connectivity Effective e-services The usage of RDI results Electronic systems’ security A coherent strategy based on sustainable development principles Stable legislative framework Decreasing resistance to change Transparent usage of public funds ADMINISTRATION The interdependence between key players, the funding/resources and the users expectations

12. The Foundation – Key player: Public Administration Stable legislative framework The elimination of the resistance to change Transparent usage of public funds Ranking of the sustainable development elements The most important barriers in implementing sustainable development policies The estimated annual percentage of the budget invested by the public administration in electronic services

13. Do you support „digital community” kind of initiatives (using IT solutions in C2G/B2G)? Do you find important a national and international fit in sustainable development policies and strategies? 48 22 Expectations: 30 Are you aware of some electronic public services available regionally? Rank the next relevant features of sustainable development as perceived by public authorities

14. Involvement of Public Institutions 31 67 Can you identify actual sustainable development specific measures in Local Public Authorities/Central Public Authorities activity? Do you consider that a sustainable development strategy is necessary? 42 54 Are you satisfied with the sustainable development specific measures implemented by public organizations? Do you consider these measures had an important medium / long term impact ?

15. The relationship between E-Government and sustainable development Rank the positive results of intense usage of electronic public services Rank the relevant features of sustainable development as perceived by the citizen

16. 6. High- level roundtable "The role of e-Governance for sustainable development" Debate on the following topics: • Analysis of survey’s results • Methods to increase transparency in public administration by using new technologies • Ensuring security of electronic systems • Education and lifelong e-learning solutions • Innovative e-services

17. About the roundtable: • The event brought together specialists from public, private, academic and non-governmental sectors. • Among them, we mention here: • Personal adviser of the Romanian Prime Minister - Mrs. Andreea Paul Vass • Deputy in the Romanian Parliament, member of the Committee for IT&C -Mr. VarujanPambuccian • Director of The Romanian National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics- Mrs. Prof. PhD. Eng. DoinaBanciu • Former Minister of Finance - Mr. IonutPopescu • Marketing and Strategy Director at Ericsson - Mr. RazvanPirvu • President of ANISP - Mr. Gheorghe Serban • Ph.D Associate Professor at the National Academy of Information “MihaiViteazul” - Mr. Prof. DumitruZamfir • President of the Institute for Political Research - Mr. Marius Vladu.

18. CONCLUSIONS: • The results pointed to the correlation and dependence between eGovernment and sustainable development • There is a strong need to interconnect isolated electronic systems, at both local, regional and international level, in order to deliver integrated e-services • Key "resources" (such as databases) have to be shared, or at least, it has to be increased the level of access granted, in order to enable international cooperation on various issues • Security is a major issue, able to either attract or limit the interest of users in e-services, since e-services use personal and private data and information • Resistance to change instead of economic crisis proved to be the major barrier for e-services' development • E-services are seen as a solution for cost cutting and increasing the quality of life

20. WSIS implementation mechanism: • An effective set of tools • Due to the time frame, it may be important to review and adapt the set of mechanisms in order to fit the actual conditions and trends • Increased usage of web 2.0 mechanisms would be helpful • The instruments have to address all kind of stakeholders; currently it may be a focus on decision makers while the other layers are less involved • Since it is a long-term approach, related actions presenting and promoting the milestones, expectations and benefits, could be helpful • Regional and sectorial events, in addition to global events could leverage the effectiveness in eGovernment and refocus on sustainable development, instead of focusing only on short and mid-term projects

21. NEXT STEPS: • Efficient exchange of best practices in public administration systems – we already have created on WWW.EGOVDEV.RO a Best Practice exchange “place” • A set of regional and sectorial analysis and events • Promoting reduction of bureaucracy and vulnerability of  the system • Implementing specific e-services, as tools for sustainable development

22. Feedback will be highly appreciated at: office@egovdev.ro Q&A Thank you!