A public service centre at the Heritage Walk Mall in Siem Reap town. PUBLIC WORKS MINISTRY
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is cooperating with a private company to develop a technology master plan for the public works and transport sectors to improve the ministry’s efficiency.
Heang Sotheayuth, director of the ministry’s Department of Information Technology and Public Relations, told The Post that the technical team from the ministry met with the technology consulting company Viettel Cambodia regarding these plans.
He said the meeting was to determine what the department’s needs are in terms of a technology system that they plan to use for the next 10 years.
He said the master plan was necessary because right now the work being done by different parts of the ministry was not well-coordinated even though they all made use of modern communications technology and that this fragmentation could be solved by creating a master plan to integrate all of the ministry’s tasks.
“We will use technology in the public sector to reduce costs and human resources, while increasing work efficiency. It not only helps with internal administration but also helps the private sector with facilitating investments,” he stated.
He explained that although the technical work would be done in cooperation with the private sector, all decisions would still be managed by the ministry and the company would provide the ministry with consultation services and technical support.
“We’ll develop this technology master plan ... in accordance with the digital policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia 2021-2030,” Sotheayuth said.
Pech Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, said embracing the strategy of providing digital services is good for the ministry and the general public because it saves people time and the government’s budget, requires fewer human resources and could be especially effective at reducing or eliminating corruption.
“This work will be successful only if we have a master plan. It means that each ministry must set up a single management system in receiving information and responding to information in a timely manner to users.
“We need to have a clear management system and lead agency. The first thing to do is to invite outside experts to help with this work. That is essential.”
Pisey said he hoped those working on the project would pay attention to the issue of service efficiency for users after the systems are implemented because if the citizenry cannot make use of these government services easily or efficiently, they will approach private services or brokers to step in and fulfil these functions instead.
