World Dialogue on Regulation

A draft of a LIRNEasia report by Chanuka Wattegama titled Benchmarking National Telecom Regulatory Authority Websites of the Asia-Pacific Region is now available for download. The report complements earlier LIRNE/WDR benchmarking reports for regulatory authority websites in Africa and Latin America & the Caribbean.

From the introduction

1.1 E-government as an NRA delivery channel

E-government as a model, is significantly different from the traditional model of the government. In contrast to the way the government services have been delivered for centuries, today the government agencies are expected to deliver information or services through electronic means, at any given place, round the clock, often with a value addition. In this model a government is expected to incorporate all three types of interactions it usually involves in, namely – government to citizen (G2C), government to industry or business (G2B) and inter-governmental dealings, which is frequently referred as government to government (G2G) to a single mechanism. By leveraging the Internet economy, the governments both in the developed world as
well as developing world are now busy with transforming all these three relationships by providing universal, anytime-anywhere access to all government information and services.

A web site of any government agency is one fundamental window to realise the true spirit of the e-government. A properly build web site provides citizens and its other stakeholders with one of the best interface to the said agency. It allows for self-service, whether a citizen looks for a certain piece of information, does a transaction or obtains a copy of a certificate. It is available round the clock and does not mandate a citizen to waste time in waiting in queues. In addition, the business firms can search for opportunities with government, find the data they search for and even apply for certain facilities on-line. In short, a web site is a virtual representation of the entire organisation in cyber space.

The obvious next step in the e-government ladder is the virtual organisations. In this model, the web site is much more than another window of an organisation. Basically, the web site itself will be the organisation. It is immaterial to the stakeholders where the organisation is physically located. The stakeholders, particularly the general public, do not have to physically visit the organisation. Instead, they interact with it electronically. So the web site of an organisation –or in broader terms, whatever the form of its Internet presence in future –becomes the nucleus of an organisation that binds the rest of the stakeholders together.

As Mahan correctly identifies, the importance of a National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority web site could never be underestimated. (Mahan, 2004) A National Regulatory Authority (NRA) is one of the key government agencies in any country. It is the apex body that largely responsible for the healthy growth of the telecommunication sector and the diffusion of telecommunication services to the public at all levels. It serves a large group of stakeholders varying from citizens to businesses and prospective investors to incumbent telecom operators. The web site of an NRA serves as an information gateway to all these interested parties.

In addition to serving as an instrument for transparency and accountability objectives, a well-designed and informative web site can also demonstrate the extent and facility with which the NRA uses the technologies and services it regulates. A well-maintained web site increases confidence in the regulator’s skills and capacities. Moreover, an effectively run web site with useful, up-to-date information and functionality can be an effective communication tool that not only speeds up communication, but decreases time and costs incurred for regulatory compliance. (Mahan, 2004)

Comment on the report at the LIRNEasia website.