(Borneo Post; November 14, 2006)

KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan believes the public should be given access to the State government's vast and valuable information assets such as those on the land.

He said yesterday the State possessed much information that could potentially be of use to the public but “much of it is locked away and inaccessible”.

An example of the impact on information management and accessibility to the public, he said, could be illustrated with Sarawak's land information, which is one of the better developed in the country.

He explained efforts in digitising maps, capturing on the land titles an development of information systems for managing land information lasting over 10 years had resulted in a huge storehouse of information with incredible value to State economy.

And though there has been much discussion on policies, delivery model and privacy, Dr. Chan said the fact remained the most of the land information continued to be digitally inaccessible to other state agencies and the general public.

“The public, for example, still need to go to the Land and Survey office to get the title search. “This is in contrast to our neighbour, Australia, where such information can be accessed through the internet.

“In such a competitive world environment, Sarawak needs to leverage whatever resources it has,” he said at the opening of the International Information (IM) Management Conference 2006 here.

As such, he challenged the conference, particularly its panel of experts, to come up with workable proposal to improved access and to unlock the value of the state government's information assets.

The two-days conference was organised by the state government with the theme. 'A holistic approach towards information management'.

Attended by about 40 participants, the conference received much input from the Canadian IM leaders besides speakers from University Technology Mara (UiTM) and the Sarawak Library.

Dr Chan said from what had been seen and learnt from government's like Canada's on IM, the state was reviewing its approach to computerisation.

He conceded that most computerisation efforts in the state and federal governments and the private sector were dominated by focus on automation of the manual work and processes.

He added it was also assumed through these computerisation efforts, productivity and the efficiency would increase and services improve.

“The reality is most of us do not have to work very hard to justify our computerisation projects. Neither do we have meaningful means of determining whether our project have been successful apart from standard project management measurements.

“Information management allows a different perspective in enabling us to view computerisation as part of an IM process with specific information deliverables whether to the public or to the other agency. This form are basis for prioritisation of ICT projects viewed from the perspective of impact to the customers,” Dr Chan said.

After the opening ceremony, Dr Chan, who is the State IT and Resource Council (SITRC) chairman, witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the State government and the Canadian government on IM.

Also present were State Secretary Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Husain, Senior Trade Commissioner and Councellor (Commercial) Canada Rene-Francois Desamore, Deputy State Secretary Datu Wilson Baya Dandot, Chief Minister's Department ICT Unit director William Patrick Nyigor, and Sarawak Library Board of Management chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Hamid Bugo.