(Borneo Post; January 30th, 2003)

KUCHING: It may soon become compulsory for all State government departments and agencies to make their non-restricted forms available for the public to download from the internet. State Secretary Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain yesterday said that there should be a cut-off date for all departments to provide their forms on-line because as it is now, departments were only encouraged to do so.

"We will make it compulsory when we have decided on the date for the cut-off," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between Swinburne Sarawak Institute of Technology and four National Vocational Training Council feeder institutions.

He said the date would have to be fixed by the State's Information Technology (IT) and Resources Council, which had decided hi a meeting in the middle of last month that these forms should be made available on the internet.

Aziz had said last month that some departments were refusing to accept downloaded forms on the account of paper and print quality and even the colour. Speaking at an awards ceremony here, he had said that such thinking and mindset did not match that of the State government and all agencies must accept downloaded forms as "valid and legitimate."

He said agencies that needed help converting their forms to a downloadable format could seek advise from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Unit of the Chief Minister's Department.

Meanwhile, the efficiency of the State government, which is at the forefront of e-government development in the country, is expected to be further enhanced once all its administrative areas are linked via broadband wireless technology some five years from now.

One such system, which provides an 8MB bandwidth connection, will soon be tested in a pilot project connecting Mukah and Sibu. Estimated to cost about RM1 million, the project is to be implemented in March this year.

Aziz said the pilot project would determine the suitability of the system and if works, it would be introduced in other areas in the State.

Wireless technology, he said, was more efficient than those that were grounded as they had little obstructions. Currently, the State is connected by fibre optics.

He felt that the five-year target to link up all administrative centres in the State was reasonable.

"Of course technology is always improving and it will be better in five years tune. So we will be able to get better or more bandwidth for far less the cost now," he said.

Quite simply, the bigger the bandwidth the faster people can connect to the internet.