Lessons, snippets, from the visit by the Singaporeans

This morning I was blown away by the presentation by Serene Ho, Deputy Director who was accompanied by her Director Ms Yen Fong Yip from the IDA (Infocomm Development Authority) International, Singapore http://www.idainternational.sg a subsidiary of IDA Singapore, http://www.ida.gov.sg.  Serene presented at an Kenya ICT Board sponsored Breakfast meeting on the Singapore Journey with a special focus on the role Information Technology has played in transforming the city state of Singapore. Thank you to Mugo Kebati, Director General Kenya’s Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat  for putting together the itinerary, packed as it may have been, for our gracious guests. The visit by IDA Singapore to Kenya follows a visit by Prime Minister Raila Odinga to Singapore last month, where Kenya and Singapore signed an MOU on various sectors, including ICT and E government.

Victor Koh, from National Social Economic Council poses with Mugo Kebati, Director General Vision 2030 Secretariate, IDA Singapore's Serene Ho and Yeun Fong Yip pose with staff of the Kenya ICT Board

I visited Singapore in June 2009 courtesy of the World Bank for a week to learn and experience how Singapore’s excellent public service management had helped this country of 4 million transform from a third to a first world country. I met with IDA International’s Serene at one of the cocktails organized for us and we immediately agreed to a visit to her offices the very next day to listen to presentations from her. Needless to say, at IDA’s Singapore offices, I went through the presentation that I went through again today. I have slides of it. I have presented to our directors and staff as part of an interim MOU that the Kenya ICT Board and Singapore’s IDA signed back then.  But listening to it again to day, it still captivated me.

The key planks of that presentation are the following

IDA Int. Director Ms Yip presents to Prof C Kiamba, PS Higher Education Science and Technology

1. Singapore’s public sector IT strategy supports the strategy of ‘Many Agencies, One Nation”. The idea that citizen needs are not determined by how government is structured and therefore technology must work to simplify government bureaucracy while delighting the citizen. case in point, it takes 15 seconds to register a card in Singapore with no charge to the citizen. Takes 2 hours to register a business.
2. Based on the above strategy, the government takes a ‘whole of government’ view to the implementation of projects in technology. No duplication of systems within the system, with an emphasis on economies of scale and optimization.
3. Masterplanning is done across the entire city state to cover all key public and private sectors. Indeed their current plan 1n2015, is intended to create ‘an intelligent nation…’. and covers entertainment, finance, healthcare and other sectors.
4. The development of key government applications that support ‘whole of government’ including Tradenet, a portal accessed system that enables businesses to sign on once and access a single permit to transact business, it further interconnects businesses with key government processes they require to do business. It is no wonder that 4 years in a row, Singapore has been ranked the no 1 country to do business by the World Bank and the World Economic forum.
5. Government spending in IT per year is approximately 800M USD. This expenditure has over the years stimulated the development of the local IT sector and also led the location in Singapore of all the leading IT multinational corporations (MNCs). The Infocomm industry development program has an emphasis on meritocracy rather than protectionism. This has led to the development of very high standard of IT companies and products. The IDA has developed many tools to support local industry including administering training and start-up grants and facilitating Intellectual Property development and protection.
   

   Walubengo makes a point during the ICT Board, Vision 2030 organised breakfast presentation by IDA Singapore

Let me explain how all this is relevant.

1. Singapore provides a benchmark from which we can re-craft and fine-tune some of our planning and execution.
2. Over the past three days since Monday we have met with 9 Permanent Secretaries of the government of Kenya to have one-on-one sessions with them on understanding their strategic issues and how these may find resolution through effective ICT implementation. The issues are diverse and numerous and this leadership team is committed to resolving them. None of the issues require quick fixes and indeed a they do not welcome any attempts at a superficial approach.
3. The timing of this visit was excellent. President Kibaki had just last week re-iterated the need for Kenya government to use ICT as a driver of greater government efficiency and better service delivery while at the same time eliminating corruption.
   

   Nik and Erik Nesbit host the IDA team and the ICT Board

4. The Kenya ICT Board, working with IDA International will be making some recommendations some key additional government applications to be considered by the team of Permanent Secretaries here. This will what we will call the foundational components of a ‘whole of government’ approach. Indeed some of them may already be in place, while others are being re-priotized. One such system would be the development of the land cadastre system by the Ministry of Lands. One, not under consideration yet but may require our collective attention is a possible Tradenet-like system. Another would be a planned look at a national human capacity database for Kenya, under the Ministry of Labour and Manpower development. The work to determine foundational components may well be covered under a soon to be awarded contract for the development of Shared Services Masterplan and pilot implementation for the Government of Kenya that the Kenya ICT Board and department of Egovernment are undertaking.
5. The Kenya ICT Board, working with the department of Egovernment is currently undertaking projects to digitise the Judiciary, The Ministry of Lands and the Company Registry. We shall augment our project delivery by consulting with IDA Singapore.
6. We are communicating to the local IT services sector (BPO, ITES and other systems integrators) that government expenditure on IT provides them with business growth opportunities. Their business plans must factor in government policy on automation and IT implementation and roll out in order that these same businesses participate and create jobs and intellectual property for Kenya. This is not always an easy argument for many of the businesses owners. Some of them consider these projects too complex, or too financially demanding to project manage. And yet by partnering with reputable international firms and investors, Kenyan entrepreueners could take a stab at this projects. This could be a win win for all. More efficient government, better service delivery to the citizens while creating jobs and long term value in the IT services sector.

Ms Serene, Deputy Director IDA Int, Ms Yip, Director IDA International and Dr Ndemo, PS Information and Communication