Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/911593
47 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2017 Information Technology to provide the information once to a public ad- ministration; inclusive and accessible services that cater for both elderly and people with disabilities; sharing of information and data to make services transparent; making digi- tal public services available across borders; designing public services to work seamlessly across the Single Market and all services must be compliant with data protection, privacy and IT security by integrating these elements dur- ing the design phase. Several good practices presented by Malta The e-Government Benchmarking report presents several good practices that were im- plemented by the EU member states. In the case of Malta, these include Maltapps, togeth- er with the Servizz.Gov portal, the e-Courts portal, the BusinessFirst portal, the MyHealth portal and the JobsPlus portal. Through Maltapps, the Maltese Government launched the first set of mobile Government systems in March 2017 giving access to a wider range of public services such as taxation, edu- cation and culture. Through the 'mother app', users can access all the other apps published by Government. In 2018, Government will be launching a sec- ond wave of apps that will provide additional functionalities such as transactions. Through these apps, citizens will be able to make pay- ments through their mobile devices. Further- more, Government will be introducing other apps that can be used to provide feedback and to participate in Government decision-making processes. The Servizz.Gov portal encapsu- lates all the Government services, allowing citizens to communicate with the central Government, local councils and public enti- ties. Services are classified under 12 sectors, representing various Government entities and departments. The eCourts portal has been designed as 'mobile first' and provides digital access to the work done by the judicial process to both legal professionals and citizens who are involved in the legal process. Through the BusinessFirst portal, Govern- ment provides a point of single contact for businesses. Apart from providing important in- formation for businesses, this portal also con- tains tools that can be used by both start-ups and established businesses. Another portal mentioned in the report is the Next Generation myHealth portal which provides citizens and their respective private medical doctors with the possibility of access- ing and viewing parts of the patient's medi- cal records maintained in the Maltese public healthcare system. This information can be accessed through the e-ID credentials. Finally, the report also mentions the Job- sPlus portal which offers the opportunity to job seekers to create a personalised digital profile include the skills and roles they are interested to work in. Employers can create their vacancy profiles and the portal matches these profiles to the skills of the job seekers and vice versa. Raising awareness about the availability of online services Together with the Office of the Principal Per- manent Secretary and several other Ministries, MITA is not only working to make online ser- vices accessible through mobile devices, but is also raising awareness, with the objective of increasing the take up of these services. Moreover, government has already embarked on a training program, with the aim to equip public officers with the required technology background to be able to support the take up of mobile public services. The e-Government Benchmark Report 2017 can be downloaded from these links – Insight report: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/ document.cfm?doc_id=48588 Background report: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/ document.cfm?doc_id=48587 ambition to create a Digital Single Market Next year Government will be introducing other apps that can be used to provide feedback and to participate in Government decision-making processes Through Maltapps, the Maltese Government launched the first set of mobile Government systems in March 2017 giving access to a wider range of public services such as taxation, education and culture. Through the 'mother app', users can access all the other apps published by Government.