National Centre for Information Technology (NCIT), in collaboration with United Nations University (UNU) and the President’s Office, has held a leadership retreat on electronic governance for the government policy and decision makers. The objective of this retreat was raising awareness and building commitment and consensus amongst the leadership of the nation for electronic governance development. This one-day retreat aimed at the Cabinet Ministers, State Ministers, political appointees and heads of other government institutions, was held at Aarah, today.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the retreat, Envoy for Science and Technology at the President’s Office Mr Ahmed Shafeeq Moosa said the government could function better if the quality of e-governance was improved.

Mr Moosa further said e-governance “will complement the decentralization process, and allow us to enhance and facilitate the delivery of government services easier to our citizens.”

He noted that digital delivery of services would make delivery of government services more accessible, efficient and transparent, and increase the participation of the people in the government.

Before concluding today’s retreat, the Envoy for Science and Technology said technology should play an important role in the changes that are happening in the Maldives, and assured that the government was committed to advancing in science and technology.

In his closing remarks, Undersecretary at the President’s Office, Dr Isaam Mohamed said the era of monolithic state has ended and the era of decentralization, private public partnerships and networks of stakeholders have begun. Therefore, he said, we should see this retreat as a beginning of the process of governance reform through e-governance.

At today’s retreat, Dr Tomasz Janowski, the founder and the head of the Center for Electronic Governance at UNU gave presentations on electronic governance and the role of leadership for e-governance. NCIT presented on the current state of the development of e-government in the Maldives.