GOVERNMENT AGENCIES will soon see their historical and bureaucratic dependence on paperwork cut drastically as the government embarks on delivering most of its services online. Vision 2020 that was adopted in 2000 to transform this country into a middle income economy by the year 2020 is well and truly on track. Among the strategies was to bring fundamental change in the country’s economic fortunes by gradually moving away from being an agrarian to a knowledge-based and ICT driven model. The four-phase National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plan was set in motion and is in third phase of improving service delivery to the citizens. When the plan was unveiled in 2000, it seemed a very ambitious project, but in the past 14 years, it has vindicated the country’s gamble of thinking big. The infrastructure is now in place, with the whole country wired with fibre optic cables, right to the remotest parts of the nation. Farmers need not to travel long distances to know prices on the markets, they can easily access market prices via mobile phones. The e-Government Master Plan that was designed will bring services closer to the people and it will open a future of endless possibilities of turning the country into a regional ICT hub. It pays to think big.
