25-31 October 2000

Focus Focus on negotiating Interests, value and the art of the best deal Managers should negotiate to create value, as well as claim it Vilhena Funds AGM "Assets under management in the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc. have increased by an impressive 42% from Lm36.19 million as at 30 June 1999 to Lm5l.58 million as at 30 June 2000. The number of shareholders has tipped the 3,500 mark." Chairman Dr Remigio Zammit Pace announced during Vilhena Funds’ Annual General Meeting. FEXCO Investment Services launched amid expanding industry FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited was recently launched. The company has been licensed to conduct Investment Services business by the Malta Financial Services Centre. At a reception Finance Minister John Dalli welcomed this new initiative by FEXCO Investment Services (Malta) Limited.			E-government finding its place in the IT revolution [ 1 | 2 | 3 ] The clear advantages of embracing e-government The Internet encompasses a wide spectrum of potential commercial activities and information exchanges. It offers firms, individuals and even governments an electronic infrastructure that enables the creation of virtual markets for goods and services where, previously, they did not exist In some countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, governments are beginning to reorganise the management of public procurement systems - equivalent to some 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product - over the Internet, opening the prospect of sizeable Business to Government transactions. The technology is also being used by governments for the transmission or receipt of information (Government to Business and Government to Consumer) to improve the convenience and lower the cost of payment systems and tax compliance (Consumer to Government), and by businesses to manage after sales service and to develop direct consumer marketing. While the concept of e-government until recently, meant nothing more than static web pages that reproduced the bureaucracies that have long left citizens waiting in long lines or on hold for hours on end, this conception is changing all over the world and in Malta as well. As governments move services like voter registration and tax payments to mere mouse clicks away from the civil service, they are finding many different business models with which to accomplish the tasks. Governments offering electronic services are overhauling their processes and systems, turning them inside out from a red tape nightmare to customer-friendly systems. By an almost overwhelming majority, governments are turning to portals: umbrella web sites that operate as a front door, linking users to additional resources. The ultimate vision is generally regarded as offering the government version of MyYahoo or MyNetscape personalised links to everything from checking on unpaid parking tickets to making tax payments online. The globally expanding e-government market is crowded with vendors offering various solutions for front-end interfaces that allow citizens to perform administrative tasks and it’s clear that the most successful models include integration to back-end systems to streamline processes. This could create a truly paperless government. Cost savings generated from those efficiencies could enable governments to provide free services while generating revenue from more sophisticated online applications. The market may still be evolving, but the advantages of embracing e-government are clear and the stakes are much higher than merely using digital government to streamline processes. Related articles: E-government finding its place in the IT revolution: Attaining e-government in Malta MITTS aims to create a virtual government

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