E - GOVERNMENT AS THE TOOL OF INFORMATION OPENNESS OF STATE AND MUNICIPAL BODIES: EXPERIENCE OF KYRGYZSTAN

Murzaev S.K. Academy of Management under the President of the KyrgyzRepublic

The "E-Government" concept, as the approach to improvement of public administrations on the basis of opportunities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), it has a number of communicative directions known as G2G, G2B/B2G and G2C/C2G. For democratic governance the importance meaning have last two, ensuring interaction between the state, citizens and private sector.

Kyrgyzstan, as well as other republics among the Commonwealth of Independent States, aspires to solve problems of development not only through democracy transition, market economy, but also use ICT opportunities. The National ICT Strategy of the Kyrgyz Republic (KR) considers creation "E-Government" as one of key directions. Maintenance of an information openness of state and municipal authorities are designated as the basic purposes:

  • Achievement of the maximum access of services of state and municipal bodies for the population, private sector and non-governmental organisations.
  • Well-informed, transparency and struggle with corruption.
  • Improvement of business-environment for investments attraction.

In National IST Strategy of "E-Government" creation the following stages are allocated:

Stage 1. (Information) – creation of the state Internet-portal to publish offered general services and information, for example, business hours, lists of contact civil servants and telephone numbers. The use of ICT in public administrations of the KR is limited, basically via e-mails.

Stage 2 (Interaction) – organization of interaction with citizens and private sector. The state and municipal bodies begin to give the information having opportunity of search in databases and reply to messages via e-mail, introduce various interactive services allowing the citizens to come to state Internet-portal and fill the various forms.

Stage 3 (Transaction) - the state and municipal bodies realization of transaction processing and there is an opportunity of granting of financial and legal services. According to these purposes such technologies, as the electronic signatures, smart cards are widely used. At this stage the introduction of electronic state purchases begins.

Stage 4 (Transformation) – assumes transition to new technologies and applications supporting possibilities of use of the information and new types of services. Creation portals will allow the citizens to pass from one service to another without certifying again the personality. Due to database interaction there can become interactive and to exchange the data with each other. The information and services will be thematically grouped according to the vital situations, on concrete areas and there are submitted to the citizens in this kind. This phase characterises transition from traditional government to "electronic".

Now, Kyrgyzstan is in transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2. In view of it in the KR there are solved tasks on creation of conditions for "E-Government" development, increasing level of use of ICT by various categories of the population and others.

1. State policy and legal environment

The authorities of Kyrgyzstan, together with various structures of a civil society and with help of the international donors, consistently forms policy on maintenance of the greater information openness of state and municipal bodies. These purposes continue to serve traditional mass media, radio and TV. On the basis of computer networks and Internet there have arisen and roughly develops new mass media. This policy is submitted by a number of the government acts. Major of them are the following.

The Constitution. The new edition of the Constitution of the KR accepted in 2003 has created new opportunities for realization of national idea «Kyrgyzstan - Country of Human Rights». With the purpose of realization of the basic rights and freedom of the citizens, including the information rights the Constitution of the KR orders of state and municipal bodies, their officials to ensure everyone access to documents and materials concerning its rights and freedom.

The right on obtaining of the information from state and municipal bodies assigned to item 15 of article 16, Constitution of the KR, which says: “Everyone has right to direct of the personal and collective requests to state and municipal bodies, which within its competence must consider these requests and give the motivated answer established by the Law”.

The Legislation. The maintenance of an information openness of state and municipal bodies on base of ICT in Kyrgyzstan bases on constantly formed legal base. The following laws are connected to the right of citizens on information of state and municipal bodies:

  • On electric and post communication;
  • On informatisaton;
  • On mass media;
  • On system of the scientific and technical information;
  • On obligatory copy of documents;
  • On state statistics,
  • On protection of state secrets,
  • On national archive fund,
  • On guarantees and freedom of information access.

These laws regulate the various relations connected with produce, transfer, distribution, storage and use of the information of public administration of the KR. Let's briefly consider some laws concerning the information openness of state and municipal bodies..

The Law "On informatisation" (1999) determined concepts of infrastructure of information, government and non-government information systems, information resources and protection of the information. There were established uniform system of bodies of management and regulation in sphere of ICT, their authorities and responsibility. In particular, the state bodies are obliged to support the market of information products and services and not allow monopoly in this sphere. The Law established the right of users in access to public information resources, thus the users are not obliged to prove before the owner of these resources the necessity of the required information.

The Law " On protection of state secrets " (1994) differentiated the list of items of information concerning and not concerning to state secrets. In particular, the non- confidential information considers: acts of nature and extreme accidents, threatening to health of the citizens; about accidents and their consequences; state of affairs in ecology, use of natural resources, public health services, culture, agriculture, education, trade and enforcement of law.

The Law " On guarantees and freedom of information access" (1998) defines the right of citizens directly or through the representatives to address with inquiry on obtaining of information, which is necessary for them. The law established, the officials of all state and municipal bodies, enterprises and establishments and public associations are obliged to ensure everyone with access to documents, decisions and other materials concerning their rights and legitimate interests.

The study of the considered laws shows, that they have declarative character and they have just basic rules. There were not determined the adequate mechanisms of realization of the approved acts - conditions of easy access of citizens to the information on the decisions of state and municipal bodies and also about its activities, (preparation and acceptance of laws, other normative acts, economic co-operation with the foreign states, maintenance of the human rights). All this complicates the realisation of uniform policy on information openness of state administration bodies.

Improved information openness would be promoted by acceptance of the following laws: On information safety, On the electronic documents, On the digital signature, On electronic seals, On information resources, On insurance of information risks, On protection of the personal data and others.

The legal relations in the information field regulate also by normative and legal acts of Government of the KR, international agreements, and principles and norms of international law, which were ratified by the KR.

National ICT Development Strategy. It was accepted in 2002 and presented a fruit of discussions of the first among the CIS countries the National ICT summit with participation of Government, private sector and civil society. The general goals of this Strategy determines assistance of realisation of National strategy "Comprehensive Development Framework of the KyrgyzRepublic till 2010" (CDF) and National Strategy for Poverty Reduction (NSPR). The priorities of ICT Strategy - (1) effective and transparent management which is carried out by state and municipal bodies through using of ICT, (2) development of human resources and training of personnel in the area of ICT and (3) the creation of electronic economy, coincides with three main components of a general development goals of Kyrgyzstan determined in CDF and NSPR:

  • Achievement of effective and transparent Governance;
  • Building fair, ensuring protection and human development, society;
  • Maintenance of stable economic growth.

These three main components of CDF and NSPR in essence coincide with the main purpose of the UN Millennium Development Declaration, which Kyrgyzstan supported on Millennium Sammit in September 2000 among 191 countries.

The global character of telecommunications and computer networks is designated in the UN Millennium Declaration as an objective of maintenance equal and easy access to ICT for achievement of Purpose 8 - "Formation of global partnership with a view of development". The decision of this objective "assumes rather fast, three-multiple growth of number of telephone and ten-multiple growth of number of computers and Internet users, allowing the country according to these parameters to get closer to the standards of the industrial countries".

2. E-Government Infrastructure

The "E-Government" development in the KR began from creation of technical infrastructure. It develops due to the following components.

Telecommunication infrastructure.Kyrgyzstan during independence years has made appreciable successes in development its telecommunication infrastructure. The realisation of the First and Second telecommunication projects allowed:

  • To create a digital radiorelay network covering all regions of the KR;
  • To form optical fibre communication lines connecting new digital ATS in capital of the country;
  • To establish ground satellite station of the standard. And, that ensured access to the global telecommunication network on eight directions (Germany, England, Japan, China and India);
  • To modernise of communication networks of main cities and regions;
  • To build kyrgyz site of the Trans Asian and European optical trunk which connected the KR with the countries of Asia and Europe.

The modernisation of telecommunication infrastructure on technology SDH allowed to realize digitalisation of 90% dedicated line and 25% switching networks. It gives an opportunity of creation of uniform systems of data transmission: voice, text, images and video. The development of digital technologies has given an impulse for the further distribution of Internet, creation of computer systems and networks.

Internet. The information openness of state and municipal bodies was promoted to distribution in the KR of Internet. The global network has big means for co-operation and dialogue with the people and source of unique information resources of global community.

There are registered and rendered services 15 Internet-providers in the KR, one group of them (Aknet, Transfer, Asainfo and Elcat) operates with the international networks through own satellite systems. The period of the most rapid development of the market services of access to Internet coincided with the end of the last decade, when the rapid increase of number of companies - Internet-providers and there were developed their technologic equipment.

Table 1

Ddevelopment of Internet services

1994 / 1996 / 1998 / 2001 / 2003
Number of Internet providers / 2 / 2 / 4 / 11 / 15
The total Internet output channels / 32 kb/s /
128 Kb/s
/ more then
768 Kb/s / about
4 Mb/s / about
15 Mb/s
Regional scope / 15% of regions / 30%
of regions / 60%
of regions / all
regions / all
regions

On the initial stage there were rendered services of e-mail, the data transmission of the data was carried out mainly through switching connections with speed of 300 - 2400 bits per second. Then there were begun complete Internet services with use of the allocated channels of communication for internal and international connections; there were appeared the representations and partners of Internet-providers.

Computer networks and systems. Governmental networks which provide access of citizens to state information resources includes:

1. State Automated System (SAS) "Shailo", which was created for elections. This network connected 6 regional centres and 53 regions (95 % of the administrative - territorial centres).

2. Information System of State Administration (ISSA) unites 40 ministries, departments and also their regional branches. On the basis of this project the process of state bodies web-sites creation was begun.

3. The State Computer Network (SCN) was created on the basis of networks SAS " Shailo" and ISSA, in 2001. Now it becomes technical basis creating system of "E-Government" in the KR.

Many ministries and departments have own corporate networks, among them: the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Ministry of Transport and Communications, National Statistic Committee, Social Fund, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Ecology and Extreme Situations, State Agency on Energy, National Bank, etc. Due to this connection, one of the main objectives is integration of departmental information systems and networks, creation of uniform allocated information and telecommunication environment.

The state of "E-Government" infrastructure in the KR shows the following.

  • About 25% of PC in state bodies are connected with SCN and 10% of them have corporate networks,
  • On the average on 1 computer accounts for 2 civil servants, and 8 civil servants accounts for 1 computer which connected to Internet,
  • The number of the ICT experts working in state bodies equals 0,4 % from all engaged population,
  • On 100 computers account for 20 technical experts,

Public Access Centres. The most part of the population of the KR lives in rural areas, where still practically there is no access to ICT. The regular Internet and SCN audience is concentrated basically in three cities of the republic - in Bishkek, Osh and Jalalabad. In these cases the large meaning is creation of Public Access Centres (PAC) to Internet. Presently, the number of them is about 40. The most part of PAC created by support of the international organisations (UNDP, IREX, Soros- Foundation). In PAC the citizens can obtain initial skills in working with the computer and free-of-charge access to various information resources. The access to the integrated information and -telecommunication services is realized on the basis of the infrastructure "Kyrgyztelecom" and local enterprises of post communication.

In PAC there will be created the reference services with such sections as:

  • Electronic labour exchange;
  • Distant education;
  • Telemedicine;
  • Database on the industrial and agricultural enterprises;
  • Database on investment appeal of regions.

While the number of PAC are insufficiently. It is necessary to expand their network and get opportunities of "E-Government" for the population of each city and village. In cities the commercial Internet centres creates rapidly (Internet - cafe, business – centre and etc). At present, its number more than 100. It promotes the rates of spreading of a global network Internet in the KR are higher than among CIS countries.

3. Information resources

Simultaneously with formation of SCN, spreading Internet and creation of PAC the obligatory step on way to establish "E- Government " is the information content and organisation of interactive interaction between state and municipal bodies, citizens and private business.

State Internet Portal (SIP). It’s been functioning since 2002 as portal of state services and as official web-server of state bodies (http: //

  • Administration of the President;
  • Prime Minister apparatus;
  • National Statistic Committee;
  • Ministry of Finance;
  • State Committee on State Property Management;
  • State Agency on Registration on Real Estate Rights;
  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
  • Central Election Commission;
  • Bishkek city administration and etc.

SIP includes also web-site "Normative and legal acts of House of Government", which is supplied with system of search of the decrees of the President, decisions of Government, laws and other normative acts.

In SIP there is open also official web-site of the President of the KR ( Jogorku Kenesh - Parliament of the KR (

Today 24 ministries, the state agencies and committee have developed the web-sites (62 % from general number), but only four sites ( regularly render information services (publication of the official chronicle and normative documents). Information on these sites is written in Russian (100%), in English (50%), in Kyrgyz language (30%).

There are results evaluation of 12 ministries web sites showed below. Evaluation was taken by 3 ball system and fourfollowing criterions: content, interactivity, net services, and usability.

Table 2

Evaluation web- sites of ministries

Ministries / URL / Language / Rank
Internal affaires / / R / 1.14
Heals care / / R, E / 1.10
Firing affaires / / R, E / 0.75
Defines / / R / 1.0
Education / / R,E,K / 0.73
Agriculture and water / / R / 0.74
Transport and communication / / Р, А / 0.65
Labour and social security / / К, Р,А / 1.10
Finance / / К,Р,А / 1.39
Ecology and extremes situations / / Р,А,К / 0.74
Economydevelopment, industryandtrade / / Р,А. / 0.90
Justice / / Р / 1.04

Table3

Functional evaluation 0f web-cites of ministries

Ministries / Content / Interactivity / Net services / Usability
Internal affaires / 1,75 / 1.33 / 0.4 / 1.09
Heals care / 1,58 / 1.67 / 0 / 1.18
Firing affaires / 1,33 / 0.67 / 0 / 1.0
Defines / 1,67 / 1.33 / 0 / 1.8
Education / 1,60 / 0.31 / 0 / 1.0
Agriculture and water / 1,17 / 0.67 / 0.4 / 0.73
Transport and communication / 1,40 / 0.30 / 0 / 0.91
Labour and social security / 1,08 / 1.67 / 0.6 / 0.92
Finance / 2,08 / 1.67 / 0.8 / 1.00
Ecology and extremes situations / 1,33 / 0.67 / 0 / 0.91
Economy development, industry and trade / 1,58 / 0.67 / 0 / 1.36
Justice / 1,25 / 1.33 / 0.6 / 1.00

Information openness on ministry’s activity is reflected by content of their web sites by following indicators:

  • News
  • Information about state authorities (contact information, location, key persons, organisation structure, statement of purpose)
  • Sector policy (strategies, programs, projects)
  • Legal acts (laws, decrees, charters, regulations)
  • Finance information (budget, grants, credits)
  • Announcement (purchase tenders, competitions for positions, conferences)
  • Databases (statistic data, legislature, publications)
  • International links
  • Analytical documents (reports, articles, comments)
  • Electronic issues (magazines, bulletins, news letters)
  • Services (list and descriptions)

Exploration of government web-site’s content showed that main of them updated not regularly, web-sites created without use of modern technologies, that does not give an opportunity to use contextual search and tools for interaction with the users, the main part sites is not registered in search systems, that does not give an opportunity to the users to find them through search systems. The 17 % of state bodies represent services, using ICT, in the basic information character, only 4% of them are carrying out dispatch of the electronic publications and the documents regularly. From general number of state services authorised by Government, in an electronic type is given only 1 %.