| This highly successful event was held
on the 8th to 10th December, 1998, at the Shangri-La
Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The symposium was sponsored by
the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government of Malaysia
and organised by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation
and Management Planning Unit (Prime Minister's Department)
and COMNET-IT. The Malaysian Prime Minister's annual
Quality Award Ceremony was held on the last day of the
symposium. Whilst the symposium attracted 350 delegates
(including a good number of international participants),
the Quality Award was attended by a large number of
additional persons, including several dignitaries. The
Minister of Trade, Dato' Seri Rafidah Aziz, presided
over the Quality Award ceremony on behalf of the Rt.
Hon. Dato' Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister,
who was unavoidably absent. The Hon. Datuk Leo Moggie,
Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, opened
the symposium and delivered the keynote address, whilst
Tan Sri Abdul Halim bin Ali, Chief Secretary to the
Government of Malaysia, delivered a closing address
in which he invited MAMPU and COMNET-IT to develop proposals
and collaborate in the subject-area of the symposium
for the benefit of all countries of the Commonwealth.
Accordingly, the development of repositories and publications
on good practice will be promoted as a significant initiative
in 1999, incorporating submissions made at the symposium.
The material presented and discussed
will be published in synthesised form in the next
issue of Forum. The themes addressed included Applications,
Legal Infrastructure, Technical Infrastructure, Data-Sharing,
Change-Management and Human Resource issues and the
Millennium bug issue.
The impeccable development and organisation
of the event, under the chairmanship of Dato' Dr. Muhammad Rais bin Abdul Karim, Director General, MAMPU, and
Mr. R. Somasundram, Symposium manager, were appreciated
by all visitors and augur well for Malaysia as a venue
for similar events.
|
International Speakers with the Hon. Minister Leo Moggie (seated at centre), Chief Tan Sri Abdul Halim bin Ali (to his right) and MAMPU Director General Dr. M. Rais (to his left)
At the opening session, left to right, Henry Alamango, Chief Secretary Tan Sri Abdul bin Ali, Minister Datuk Leo Moggie, MAMPU Director General,
Dato Dr. M. Rais and Dr. Richard Heeks (Manchester University)
The Hon. Rosemary Varty (Cabinet Secretary Government of Victoria Australia) and Chief Secretary Tan Sri Abdul Halim bin Ali (right)
share an informal discussion with Henry Alamango, Executive Director for COMNET-IT
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