Italy, Iraq agree to strengthen e-gov't cooperation
Italy and Iraq have signed an agreement to strengthen e-government cooperation as part of a project aimed at creating an intranet linking some 30 ministries and state institutions, Italy's Innovation and Technologies Ministry announced Friday.
The agreement, an addendum to a memorandum of understanding between the two countries agreed to last July, was signed in Rome late Thursday by Iraq's Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar and Italy's Innovation and Technologies Minister Lucio Stanca, the ministry said in a prepared statement.
The Italian government confirmed its commitment to the completion of the ongoing government intranet project, which is due to become operational in the next few weeks with the creation of an IT link between the first 13 government ministries, the statement said. The broadband system uses advanced laser technology and has been chosen for its operational efficiency and security, Stanca said in a statement. The intranet will have a supplementary satellite back-up system, he said.
"The laser technology is American, but everything else is Italian," said Dario De Marchi, an Innovation and Technologies Ministry spokesman, in an interview. "It's a new and very secure technology, which is not subject to meteorological interference, including from sand storms. We have made a lot of progress since July, despite the security problems in Iraq."
Half a dozen Italian technicians have helped to implement the project in Iraq and 40 Iraqi government technicians have received training in Italy as part of the project, De Marchi said. The project is part of a wider program promoted by the G8 and the United Nations to encourage the introduction of e-government in developing countries. Italy has been playing a leading role in the project. The G8 consists of the world's eight leading industrialized countries.
The Italian Foreign Ministry is financing the first phase of the project with an investment of US$3.2 million, the statement said. The next stage of the project, which is expected to be ready for approval within a couple of weeks, will be the presentation of an Iraqi government portal, De Marchi said.
Under the latest agreement, Italy will provide strategic, technical, legal and other assistance to the Iraqi Science and Technology Ministry for the definition and implementation of its e-government strategy.
"The Science and Technology Ministry is doing very important work,," De Marchi said. "It's responsible for the conversion of the country's research institutions from military to civilian purposes."
» posted by abennett
IDG News Service
Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 deliver industry leading Windows data protection and system recovery. Download this whitepaper to find out the top reasons to upgrade and how to get continuous data protection and complete system recovery.
Data and system loss — from a hard drive failure, malicious attack, natural disaster, or simple human error — can happen anytime. Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Make sure you have a secure recovery strategy in place. Symantec's latest backup and system recovery technology can efficiently restore critical applications, individual emails and documents and even restore your entire system in minutes in the event of a loss.
Businesses face a growing challenge to ensure that the IT environment is properly protected. Backup Exec 12 integrates with other applications in the Symantec family of products, to complement your current data protection strategy, keep your data securely backed up and make it recoverable when you need it most.
