Tech drives govt service delivery

Governments in the Gulf have invested heavily in modernising their operations and service delivery to constituents, writes The National.

In particular, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pioneered large-scale e-government programmes to gain greater cost efficiencies and better serve the needs of their citizens.

However, most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations still have a way to go in achieving parity with other countries. GCC governments face key challenges as they strive to increase adoption of information and communications technology as well as ensuring its effective use.

ePLDT, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone company, was split into two business groups, in a bid to streamline the ICT business as well as the outsourcing business, says Business Mirror.

ePLDT is the Internet unit of PLDT. The parent firm's board has approved the reorganisation of ePLDT into two business groups: ICT and business process outsourcing.

The ICT business group provides data centre services, Internet and Internet-gaming services, and business solutions and applications.

Infrastructure major HCC's realty arm, Lavasa Corporation, that has floated the MyCity Technology firm in partnership with IT major Wipro, has partnered with networking company Cisco to provide ICT services in the newly-created Lavasa city, in India, states Rediff.

MyCity Technology, a joint venture company between Lavasa, Wipro and Cisco, will invest around Rs 450-crore to provide e-governance, ICT infrastructure and other value-added services in Lavasa city.

"MyCity is an endeavour towards making Lavasa a planned and well-managed city. With partners like Cisco and Wipro, we intend to make it green and sustainable through effective use of modern technology," Lavasa's chairman Ajit Gulabchand said.