Minister of Administrative Development Ahmed Samir says that he will spend some of his Ministry's budget of about LE300 million on the ‘Government to Government' (G to G) project. The Egyptian Gazette recently visited the Ministry to find out what ‘G to G' precisely is. “ ‘G to G' is not a service, but an infrastructure that assists several services," Tareq Saad Badr, Vice-Chairman of the Policies and Programmes Sector, told this newspaper in an interview. “This project will help people get hold of governmental documents, such as their birth certificates, without having to resort to governmental organisations," he explained. The Ministry of State for Administrative Development's (MSAD) main objectives are to develop the State's administrative system, so that it functions effectively and efficiently, enabling it to adapt to the fast pace of change, improve the management of State resources, and provide quality services for citizens. MSAD formulates public policies, plans and programmes to activate and develop the performance of governmental services at the earliest time and the lowest cost. “The citizens are our Ministry's first and most important target. We, the people who work in this Ministry, want to minimise the troubles and burdens facing people when they need to get hold of governmental documents," Mr Saad, who has been honoured by the United Nations, added. “ ‘G to G' allows governmental officials to speak to each other, using the national number of citizens. National IDs facilitate our mission. “The Ministry has developed the use of technology in all the other ministries, for example the Internet and mobile services, making it easier for them to get the information the public need. “For example, if someone wants to send his children to school, he will need their birth certificates. According to the present system, he has to go to the civil registry and waste a lot of time queueing. “But ‘G to G' means that he'll only have to go to the school and give the administration there his children's names. Then the school gets in touch with the concerned governmental organisation to get all the required information," he added. According to Saad, ‘G to G' will not incur any expenses. It will allow for the exchange of information between governmental bodies, according to the E-Signature Law of 2004, which allows for the exchange of governmental documents. As well as saving citizens time and money, this project will also put an end to the problem of the forgers who give wrong personal information, because ‘G to G' depends on national ID numbers. “The Ministry will train the governmental officials on the technological systems that support ‘G to G'," Saad added, explaining that it will operate nationwide and save a lot of paperwork. Many Egyptians are unaware of the importance of the MSAD, because they don't deal with it directly. But it does help them. “All we want to do is to make life easier for citizens," Saad concluded.
