BPMapping and UMM in business process modeling for e-government processes
dg.o '08 Proceedings of the 2008 international conference on Digital government research
Modeling e-government business processes: New approaches to transparent and efficient performance
Information Polity - Government Information Sharing and Integration: Combining the Social and the Technical. Papers from the 9th International Conference on Digital Government Research (d.g.o.2008)
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Trade facilitation is a generic term applied to the procedures and technologies used to integrate domestic trade into global supply chains. While there are other aspects to trade facilitation, ICT is becoming progressively more important. The objective of ICT in this context is to replace the paper documents, original signatures, cash payments and face-to-face meetings involved in obtaining import and export approvals from government agencies, and from Customs processes. This specific application of e-Government is crucially dependent upon effective e-Governance for transparency and efficiency. This paper discusses the importance of e-Governance mechanisms to free and fair trade, particularly through ICT interoperability and interconnectivity, data sharing through international standards, and process transparency. We illustrate the arguments by discussing the current global status of trade facilitation and the "single window" approach. One of the key lessons learned from successful trade facilitation implementations is the need to avoid "agency-centric" or "silo" approaches to systems reform. Trade facilitation, above all other e-Government initiatives, requires the cooperation of a sizeable proportion of Government agencies, in partnership with the private sector. Since trade facilitation is conditional upon local business practices and culture, best practice models are somewhat ethereal. Academic input is generally provided through international agency publications and projects. Private sector publications tend to be limited to product descriptions and case studies (See Appendix 2 for more details). The effectiveness of ICT in trade facilitation depends upon a pragmatic approach to what is technically and financially possible at a given stage of economic development and administrative reform. Hence this paper does not discuss specific ICT issues nor does it take an academic view: rather, it is a report on the current status of trade facilitation and the route that many countries-and some trade organisations, such as ASEAN and APEC- are taking towards a practical ICT-based single window initiative.