The Mayoral office of Panama announced that this month it will begin the first phase of digitizating processes for admissions, reviews, registrations and approvals of plans of works to be developed in the district capital.
The first phase involves testing the installed technology systems, begining with the entry into the system of three urban development projects that will serve to verify the operation of the platform, then a report will be made and if necessary, adjustments will be made. It is expected that in a year the process for approving plans will be completely systematized in order to reduce the time for gaining authorization from 8 months to 45 days.
The implementation of a new electronic state correspondence platform for the country will save $3 million annually in paper, time and operating costs.
From a press release by the National Authority for Government Innovation (AIG):
The Cabinet Council has approved a special appropriation in the amount of $1.5 million in favor of the National Authority for Government Innovation (AIG), in order to promote an electronic state correspondence system.
The "Paperless Panama" project, worth $25 million, will be put out to tender on Thursday August 4.
Eduardo Jaen, manager of the Government Innovation Authority, said that they will be contracting out the first stage of the project, worth $12.5 million, adding that the award will go to the bidder with the lowest price.
The initiative seeks to create business systems that will interconnect all state databases, simplifying procedures and avoiding the need for citizens to provide documents that already exist in public databases.
Scheduled to launch in 2012, the program will enable electronic exchange of information among state institutions and improve services for users.
According to Eduardo Jaen, administrator of the Government Innovation Authority, there is an analysis being made at institutions with most transactions, the Comptroller General's Office and the Ministries of Economy and Finance, Social Development, Education and Health.
From yesterday the country increased the connection speed of the National Internet Network (RNI in Spanish) to one megabyte.
The director of the government's innovation authority (AIG in Spanish), Pablo Ruidíaz, stated that the increase in connection speed does not add any costs to the original project.
Pa-digital.com.pa reports comments from the director: "All users of the network at any of the 661 access points located in Panama's 22 cities will benefit".