Six Canadian delegates were invited to a symposium in China recently to give their views on e-government and information security.
The 2002 International Chief Information Officer Symposium, held in Beijing and Shanghai in October, covered topics including e-government transformation, the role of the CIO, Ontario’s e-government strategies, managerial tactics for network security, protecting intellectual property, and planning approaches to information security.
The Canadian delegates who spoke at the event were invited by the Chinese government, which is currently examining the future role of the CIO in government and its e-government strategies.
“We discovered primarily that the Chinese government had not yet formally established the CIO function in all of its departments,” said John Rollock, a former assistant deputy minister and CIO with Ontario’s justice sector, who spoke at the symposium. “What they were looking for was expert advice on the major issues facing the CIO today and insight into the function itself.”
Rollock, who is currently an independent consultant, addressed the issue of sector transformation as a basis for successful e-government delivery at the symposium, which was coordinated by Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto.
“Overall, the symposium was quite successful,” Rollock said. “There seemed to be a lot of interest in many of the topics that we were talking about. There was also alot of interest in Canada’s evolution towards e-government.”