CAIRO: The Minister of State for Administrative Development Ahmed Darwish stressed e-Government as a key contributor to development. In the meeting of the participants of the Good Governance for Development (GfD) in Arab Countries, Darwish said that e-Government is one of the main features of GfD. The state employees, however, are not necessarily ready to use the new technologies associated with e-Government. But there is progress in this realm. "If I am to be asked if the employees in the government are well educated to use computers and online technologies my answer will be no, but could they be well educated? My answer is yes, Darwish said in a press conference following the meeting.Darwish said that there are training workshops offered to employees working in governmental institutions on three levels; first to learn how to use the system, second to use specific applications and finally to use advanced applications.According to Darwish, in "seven years since the start of the e-Government initiative in July 2001, we have never outsourced an employee from outside the government to work on a specific job. GfD also called for establishing political dialogue in the region, as well as implementing practical means to eliminate corruption. In its third meeting last week, GfD stressed the need for more advanced dialogue between the different Arab countries to enhance their political and business strategies, as well as better implementation of corruption monitoring. The conference also advised Arab countries to build regional centers for conducting training workshops in various fields.The participants evaluated the GfD initiative over the past three years. The one-day meeting took place at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo and was headed by Darwish, and Ambassador Gun-Britt Andersson from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The conference included representatives from the European Commission, the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that was headed by Dr Adel Abdel Latif, regional program division chief at the Arab states the bureau. The conference featured strong Arab participations with representatives from almost all Arab countries, including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, the Palestinian National Authority, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.The GfD called for Arab countries to cooperate more in sectors such as business and civil societies to better cope with global developments. Arab countries should work more towards strengthening the trust between their governments and the citizens through political transparency. The civil society should help in the implementation of such objectives, said GfD participants. "Arab countries should have a social dialogue within each country that involves members of the civil society to come up with a shared vision on how the resources should be best used to benefit the public, Darwish said.Participating foreign countries were also encouraged to increase their financial aid to Arab countries to be able to conduct their development projects, which, according to Darwish, is proof of the success of the GfD initiative. Representatives of countries, such as Australia, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Turkey, were present. Darwish said that managing the public funds should be a priority for the development projects in the Arab world. He added that the routine by which paper work gets done in governmental institutions slows down the flow of money within the state.Darwish also stressed the importance of the allocation of the public funds.In a previous interview with Daily News Egypt Darwish stated that the GfD project is not working under "the old formula of Arab union, but is a new formula of Arab dialogue and communications. We are not talking about normal projects; we are talking about exchanging experiences in governance, legal issues, role of public sectors and NGOs. According to Darwish, every country is free to execute the project in a way that is in line with its respective culture and agenda. The point of the cooperation is to create a platform for the countries to share their ideologies, plans and opinions.Inaugurated in 2005, the GfD is supported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Program in the Arab region.GfD has helped Egypt in setting up a regional tax and financial management in Cairo as well as supported Morocco in establishing a regional center for public policy evaluation.
