Governance Day This year’s Governance Day was quite different than in years past. It called for the traditional Board and Council meetings but also welcomed a new collaborative initiative to the ICA Programme. A traditional and administrative part of this day included the annual Board and Council meetings during which a number of topics were presented, discussed and voted upon. Minutes of these 2 meetings have been reported and distributed to all Members. During the Council meeting, elections were held that brought about some updates to the Board and Programme Committee. We will start with a warm welcome for a past member country, who have rejoined our network following a short period of absence. New Zealand will be represented by Mr. Tim Occleshaw as the National Representative and Mr. Graeme Osborne as Deputy National. Romania has also joined our community of CIOs with Mr. Cristian Cucu assuming the role of National Representative. Another update at the National front goes to Australia. Mr. Peter Alexander is the newly appointed National Representative while Mr. Matthew Goonan will act as Deputy National. On the Organization’s governance front we have a number of changes and additions to the Board and Programme Committee following this year’s Council elections. Mr. Toshi Zamma has fulfilled his Chairmanship with success and will continue his valuable activity with ICA as Past Chair on the Board and as Deputy National Representative of Japan. The role of ICA Chair will be assumed for the next 2 years by the newly elected Mr. Juhani Korhonen, Deputy National representative of Finland. And as he hands over his Past Chair position, Mr. Shimon Broner, National Representative of Israel will continue his active role on the Board with his newly assigned post, that of Assistant Treasurer. The Programme Committee also welcomes two new members. Mr. Cristian Cucu, Romanian National Representative and Mr. Lourino Chemane, National Representative of Mozambique who will be joining the organizing efforts for the next successful annual event! It should be noted that Romania will be the proud host of the 53rd ICA Conference in 2019. Welcome to all new representatives, we look forward to working with each and every one! And while the National representatives were holding discussions, a new initiative was taking place in the room next door! The “ICA Knowledge Sharing IT Government Programme” aiming to develop IT government professionals’ technological skills in technologically emerging countries facilitated a “Knowledge Sharing Seminar” or “Peer to Peer Education Lab”. The Programme, organized by ICA and with the joint effort of the World Bank High-level Experts, Leaders, and Practitioners (HELP), brought together field experts and academia in order to address “digital awareness and implementation” in developing countries. WB’s Oleg Petrov, Aki Enkenberg and eGovlab’s at Stockholm University Harald Kjellin, “Chip” Cottrell and Gideon Mekonnen Jonathan worked with the delegates from Albania, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and OSCE. Next stop was at the OP Financial Group, where the conference participants were introduced to how OP, the largest financial services provider in Finland, is utilizing new technologies in service development. Some included: Examples of AI based services in financial services. Generating and testing new business concepts by OP Lab, Internal Startup Accelerator. Utilizing block chain powered business processes spanning over financial and government institutions. Streamlining business processes using software robotics. The day rounded off with a warm welcoming event at the Finnish Tax Administration.
