Vladivostok to Join World-Wide Electronic Government

VLADIVOSTOK. October 8. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The capital of the Republic of Korea Seoul hosted the high-profile international IT event - World e-Government Mayors Forum.

This project, which serves as an international electronic venue for mayors and governors of the largest cities across the globe, is actually a striking manifestation of the development of the state-of-the-art technologies. Its primary objective is to make the activity of governmental institutions more effective, transparent and useful for ordinary citizens. The development of informational technologies and infrastructure as well as the application of electronic document management systems should result in significant reduction of cost and corruption.

At present, the most developed countries, where the number of Internet users is 30% to 50% of population, are on the threshold of electronic revolution. So, in France the initiative to assign personal e-mail address to all citizens from the day of birth is under discussion. On June 6, 2000 Australia set a precedent for registration of marriage through the Internet. In Singapore, where high-speed Internet access will be available to every house in the next few years, the cash money is supposed to be replaced by electronic money next year.

The issues relating to creation of the international organization of e-Governments and the formation of the basic principles of its operation topped the agenda of the forum. The major event drew more than one thousand IT experts, representatives of the leading international organizations including the United Nations, official delegations from more than 50 cities around the world as well as renowned scientists and conspicuous statesmen.

The presentations of e-Governments of Seoul, San Francisco, Barcelona, Perth, Nairobi and São Paulo, which were held in the framework of the forum, gave the participants of the event an insight into the main directions of the development and practical application of advanced IT systems.

Oleg Zubakov, Chief Specialist at the Vladivostok Department of Information and Communication Technologies was on of the participants in the forum. He handed a letter of the Vladivostok mayor Igor Pushkarev to the organizer of the forum - mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon. In the letter Igor Pushkarev stressed the importance of holding such a high-profile event and expressed his confidence that the capital of Primorsky Krai would successfully adopt the latest IT developments in the nearest future.