Dr Ir Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, Secretary General, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, told officials at FutureGov Forum Indonesia this morning (29th November 2010) that the need to better share information between governmental departments - and with the public - was the key driver behind the project.

“It is critical that the public receives accurate information from the government in a timely manner, and this depends on better information sharing in government,” said Iskandar.

The project will focus on inter-departmental information first, then move on to connectivity between central and local government.

The latter, it emerged in a panel discussion after Iskandar’s speech, would be the most difficult part of the plan, particularly in the east of the archipelago of 17,000 islands where infrastructure and capacity is low.

The roadmap will involve strengthening regulation in public services, electronic transactions, public exposure and law enforcement, Iskandar explained.

It will also involve “significant” spending on e-government and e-education, capacity building and skills development in ICT.

“Ultimately, we want to improve the quality of public services by integrating the backend to create a single service delivery unit for all government departments,” Iskandar said.