Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

The government officials’ eGovernment strategy for
the next three-year period has been confirmed, but
has not yet been released officially. There are high
expectations about the revamp of the program,
however, mainly from the information technology
community, based on the creation of the eGovernment
Committee and the reestablishment of the Technical
Chambers, which were created to address specific
information technology issues in the eGovernment
program. The eGovernment Chamber responsible for
issuing policies related to telecommunications infrastructure
is preparing to release defined directives
for 2004 through 2006, as well as the action plan
for 2004.
Among the expected announcements is the definition
of a policy that will govern the eGovernment
network common to all federal administration, the
Infovia Br@sil. The Infovia will be a high-speed
network that will supply government with a costeffective
environment, greater uptime, high capacity
and, most important, greater reliability to benefit all
government-generated applications. The creation of
the Infovia is perceived as the solution to some of
the Technical Chambers’ greatest challenges: to end
the fragmentation and the high cost of voice and
data networks, and to establish norms and policies
aimed at integrating the many existing government
networks (voice, data and image). It is expected that
by 2006 all infrastructure policy will be implemented
and institutionalized, including the technical norms
for the creation and implementation of new networks.
Other government priorities include implementing
an open-source policy to be used by all government
agencies and implementing telecenters, where government
services will be available via kiosks and
telephone, with support available to citizens.
The government transition—combined with costcontainment
measures and administration priorities
on basic social programs—has meant that the
Brazilian government did not demonstrate a great
deal of progress in its eGovernment program this
year. As the new government gains traction and
expands its focus areas, there is great expectation
that government will once again invest in—and
reignite—its eGovernment initiatives in 2004.
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