National Front Many updates to note on our National Representative front-once again, we have new members joining us with Mr. Lars Petersen and Yih-Jeou Wang as National and Deputy National respectively for the country of Denmark. Ms. Anna-Maíja Karjalainen is the newly appointed National Representative for Finland; while Mr. Osamu Kitagawa will be representing Japan as a National. Mr. Rogelio Tejada will hold the Deputy National post for Mexico and Mr. Lourino Chemane will be serving as the National Representative for Mozambique. Portugal is represented by Mr. Pedro Dias as National and returning Deputy National, Ms. Cláudia Barroso. Finally the Republic of Korea has updated their assignment posts with Mr. In-jae Lee stepping in as National and Mr. Kibyoung Kim assuming the Deputy National role. For a complete look at the National delegations please visit our National Representatives page.
Special Conference Moments The Conference commenced and came to an end on plenty of commemorative notes, beginning with a personal letter from European Commissioner Andrus Ansip addressed to ICA Chair Toshi Zamma. Among others, in his letter to ICA, Mr. Ansip endorses and encourages the activities of this global community for the networking and knowledge sharing opportunities the organization makes available to its members. You may read the letter here The conference closing event was highly recognized with the attendance of Colombian ICT Minister David Luna who welcomed our organization emphasizing the importance that digital transformation/implementation has to citizen involvement, especially when tackling societal issues in developing countries. Mr. Shimon Broner Mr. Peter Bruce However, the closing gala dinner held some more surprises for participants, ones that were closer to home. It was with great honor that the ICA Chair and the Vice Chair presented two of our members with the Distinguished Service Award. Shimon Broner and Peter Bruce were recognized for their many years of valuable service and dedication to ICA. Finally, it was a great moment for a very dear and special member. Larry Caffrey was honored for the decades of commitment, devotion and unconditional support to ICA as he steps away gradually from his Treasurer post. Needless to say, his presence will be strong and welcomed for many more years to come!
Conference Overview - Digital Government: Designing for the citizen experience The 50th Golden Anniversary Conference brought together government CIOs and other relevant stakeholders from all around the world to Medellín, the second largest city of Colombia and capital of Antioquia. At the center of all topics shined the CITIZEN; also referred to as customer nowadays and not by light reference since as all customers, citizens have expectations or better yet-demands. A happy customer is a returning customer. So how do governments ensure that the services they provide answer to their citizens’ needs? How do governments manage the overwhelming amounts of data they posses while securing accurate cross-agency data exchange? How can this data be used to better provide service demands for healthcare, education, environment/climate and agriculture to name a few? Can cooperation between public and government sector provide the digital key to the solution? As a member, login to our website under resources and conferences and access the conference presentations that showcase a number of governments’ digital transformation strategies aiming to make the citizen experience a rewarding one! A special note of thanks is extended to the past ICA members who honored us with their virtual presence during the Golden Anniversary session. Ann Steward, Nachman Oron and Peter Hearson joined this special presentation by Larry Caffrey, taking members and conference attendees on a “Trip through Time.” Finally, as the Deputy National of Colombia, Jorge Bejarano, would say “Por favor no olvide las evaluaciones!” Therefore, a kind reminder to all 50th ICA Conference participants- your opinion matters! We ask that you check out the Conference Evaluation Forms and complete the ones you didn’t have time to address in Medellín -these will be available until December 11th.
Council Meeting The Conference kicked off with the Council meeting where nationals and deputy nationals gathered to address organizational matters but also to review Board and Programme Committee members’ status as well as new country entries. At the top of the Agenda was the approval of returning membership request by Denmark and the new membership application by Mozambique. On this note, we welcome back to the ICA community one of our longest standing, as well as founding members, the country of Denmark. The Nordic Country will be represented by Mr. Lars Petersen as National Representative and Mr. Yih- Jeou Wang, as Deputy National. Mozambique will also be part of our CIO global community with the appointment of Mr. Lourino Chemane to the National Representative post. Furthermore, we have a new Vice-Chair joining Mr. Juhani Korhonen (Finland) as Mr. Joseph Yew (Singapore) steps up to this demanding Board post. For full details, please visit our website Board section. New Programme Committee members were also elected as preparations for the 51st ICA Conference are already underway. Mr. Rogelio Tejada (Mexico) and Mr. Ken Wang (Taiwan) join the Programme Committee and look forward to their active involvement in view of the next annual event to be hosted by Japan in 2017. For full details, check out the Programme Committee section of our website.
New Beginnings! Sometimes saying goodbye also means great beginnings, and that’s the case with Howard Jyan. Howard will not be joining us as ICA Vice Chair from now on, as he has taken on new authority within the Government of Taiwan. We take this opportunity to congratulate Howard as he has been assigned to Director General of the newly established unit called Department of Cyber Security in the Executive Yuan (Cabinet). This department will be responsible for the national cyber security of Taiwan. For those who would like to stay in touch, his new email address has been updated in the members only page of our website. Howard, we wish you great success in your new endeavors!
Newcomers… On the National Representative front, we would like to welcome a number of new members. Mr. Daniel Quintero-Calle is the newly appointed Vice Minister for the Ministry of IT and the new ICA National Representative for Colombia. Canada’s Deputy Representative is now Ms. Jennifer Dawson, Deputy CIO. Many will recall meeting Mr. Oren Ariav, but now he has officially joined ICA. The Senior CIO with the Ministry of Environmental Protection is now the Deputy National for Israel. We see a change in Korea’s representation, with the National Representative position awaiting appointment but also with two new assignments as Deputy Nationals. Mr. Ilkwon Bae, Director, and Ms. Seong Ju Park Special Advisor, both joining us from the Global E-Government Division at the Ministry of Interior. Last but not least, Joseph Yew steps up to the National Representative post, while Ms. Dorcas Tan, Director at Strategic Planning and International, with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is the new Deputy National Representative. A warm welcome to all, and we look forward to meeting with you soon!
