Government revamps its website, expands features

While there is no doubt that computers and the internet have revolutionised the way we live and work, in many cases the hype often outpaces the reality. Today government unveiled a new initiative that it hopes will put Belize one step closer to its digital destiny.

Myrtle Palacio, Director, Office of Governance
?The mantra of our office has been putting people first, and we are very serious about it. Today we are here to launch a government information system. A one stop shop for all government information. This is our continued effort at good governance in transparency and accountability.?

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning, the Office of Governance officially launched the Government of Belize?s Website Portal.

Prime Minister Said Musa
?The launch of a website portal is yet further development in the area of e-government through accessibility to organize information. The primary objective is the empowerment of people.?

According to Prime Minister Said Musa, the website is another step in Government?s efforts to modernize the public service.

Said Musa
?One, the Belize Health Information System provides for computerized medical records. Two, the financial management information system project has among other things, enhanced and changed the operations of the Treasury Department. Three, the land information system project has allowed the public to make payments wherever they are. We also of course have all the laws on the web.?

Michelle Longsworth, Head, Electronic Governance Unit
?This site is designed with the cutting edge e-business technology.?

According to the head of the Information Technology and Electronic Government Unit, Michelle Longsworth, one new feature on the site will enable government departments and ministries to use ?intranet? to communicate. And employees can do so without fear of information leaks.

Michelle Longsworth
?You will have secured features there where it will be logged who is posting these information, who is posting a comment, who is posting a certain topic and from that topic, it will be tracked to see who all comments on this topics, because you want information there, you want the discussion there to be relevant to the topic. You don?t want people to be, you know how these discussion boards are, all sorts of bad comments and bad things, and that is why we didn?t open it to the wider public.?

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The address of the website is www.governmentofbelize.gov.bz