New action plan for local e-government
At the preconference on e-government held in Ghent, the ‘Citadel Statement’ was presented. This is an action plan to support e-government in towns and municipalities. E government is the use of ICT to improve services to citizens and enterprises.
“E-government is a difficult issue across the whole of Europe”, Flemish Minister Geert Bourgeois explains. “Major cities are often able to develop robust or large projects, but smaller towns usually have far less resources to incorporate ICT in the services they provide.”
Local e-government is to ensure that the contact between the citizens and local authorities is made much easier.
Conference
During the conference numerous experts came to present their opinion on how local e-government can and must be strengthened. Carlota Perez made an impressive analysis of how innovation can have a drastic effect on economic development and social changes. Sabine Rotthier of Hogeschool Gent presented the I-scan project, which involves the examination for each Flemish municipality whether the right conditions for a strong ICT policy are present. Dries Buytaert explained how Open Source and Cloud Computing can be of use to municipalities with a limited budget.
At the start of the conference, Julia Glidden presented the ‘Citadel Statement’. Daniël Termont, the Mayor of Ghent, and representatives from the cooperating international organisations (SMART Cities and LOLA – Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Societies) expressed their personal view of the Citadel Statement.
All organisations and enterprises expressed their support for the ‘Citadel Statement’, which they consider to be a solid starting point for a European municipal e-government policy.
