Rationale 

In many countries, the Internet is revolutionizing interaction between the citizen and his or her governments. Three Global Forums on e-government have already been held – the first in Washington, the second in Brasília, and the third in Naples, Italy, in March of this year. In these international events, the emphasis has been on development of electronic government at the national level, though there has been a growing attention to sub-national governments. 

Brazil is clearly among the leaders in the use of the Internet to improve government services, and the country benefits from an important effort by the Federal Government and various state and municipal governments. As part of this movement, the State and City of Rio de Janeiro sent delegations to the Third Global Forum in Naples. 

In countries such as  Brazil, which have federal systems, the citizen has important interactions with state and municipal as well as the central government. These interactions are political (voting and other means of democratically influencing the government), economic (payment of taxes, receipt of transfers or subsidies, bidding on or observing the process of purchase and sale of goods and services), and social (access to and democratic control over health, education, training, pensions and other services), among others. The need for these services arises at different times over the citizen’s life cycle – birth, infancy, schooling, marriage, work, creation of an enterprise or union, retirement, and death. 

Democratic governments, taking advantage of the revolutionary technology of the Internet, are now seeking to organize themselves to serve the citizen – more in response to his or her demands rather than as a function of their internal bureaucratic structures. 

Objectives 

The Government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, in collaboration with the state’s Municipal Governments, is looking for ways to take advantage of the Internet to: 

·        Intensify democratic interactions with its citizens.

·        Increase the transparency of government and its actions, thus fighting corruption.

·        Reduce the costs of governmental services while at the same time improving their quality.

·        Simplify and facilitate the life of citizens and businesses on their territories.

·        Improve democracy for the electronic world of the 21^st Century.

·        Learn from the e-government experiences of other states and local governments in countries with federal political systems, in order to accelerate implementation of its own e-government, thereby avoiding errors committed elsewhere. 

Therefore, the State of Rio de Janeiro, and its Data Processing Center (PRODERJ) with the support of the Reference Center in Business Intelligence (CRIE) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and financial support from  FAPERJ, Oracle Brasil, Unisys Brasil, the Consulate of the United States, and the Brtish Consulate is organizing an International Forum entitled The Citizen and His or Her Electronic Governments. As the name of the event indicates, the focus of this forum is on the citizen and his or her needs, interests, and desires – and on how governments, at the municipal, state, and federal levels – can respond to these, taking advantage of the technology of the Internet. All this in a democratic environment, seeking to improve the quality of life and participation of citizens in their governments, inverting the traditional focus of administrative reforms. Reconstructing governments from the viewpoint of the citizen will be the principal focus of the Forum. 

Target Public for the Forum 

The initial forecast is that there will be roughly 500 invited participants. Participation by the public, up to a total of 1000 participants, will also be encouraged. 

Governments

Representatives of

·        92 municípios from the state of Rio de Janeiro

·        20 municípios from neighboring states

·        8 “neighboring” state Governments (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Bahia and Pernambuco) – two representative from each

·        Federal Government (Minister Chief of Staff for Domestic Affairs, Presidency of Brazil; Secretaries of the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management; Ministry of Science and Technology)

Civil Society

Representatives of NGOs that contribute to improved access to computers and the Internet by the low-income population (Committee for Democratization of Informatics, Information Network of the Third Sector), Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro, Commerce Association of Rio de Janeiro, unions of public and private sector workers, professional associations, political parties, and others to be identified – 50 representatives. 

Media

Journalists dealing with the topics of the Forum, from the print and electronic media, representatives of ISPs (for example UOL, Terra and others which include content in addition to internet access) – 15 representatives from the media. 

Private Sector

Internet infrastructure providers (Embratel, Telemar, Telefónica, BrazilSat, ImpSat, others); suppliers of hardware and software for public access points (including consultancy services) used in the implementation of e-government – 20 representatives of the private sector.

Universities

Representatives of universities with research and/or training programs related to e-government – 20 representatives 

Organization of the Forum 

The venue for the Forum will be the Auditorium of the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN) at the corner of Avenida Graça Aranha and Rua Santa Luzia in the center of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Forum will last for two days (the 23^rd and 24^th of October of 2001, and will consist entirely of plenary sessions. There will be coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon each day to permit networking among the participants and visits to the exposition. 

The lunches will be the participants'own responsibility, with the organizers providing a list of nearby restaurants.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 24 there will be a cocktail and reception for the participants.

Preliminary Program: Tuesday 23 October 2001 

Preliminary Program: Wednesday 24 October 2001 

Interactive Strategic Communication with the Citizens through the Media 

The media have a critical role to play in the development of the Forum, in the education of the public and the government concerning the potential benefits of e-government in improving citizen-government and enterprise-government relations. The newspaper O Globo will publish six columns on the subject matter of the Forum, four before the event and two after. There will also be web pages on the Forum on the site of the Government of Rio de Janeiro and the Reference Center on Business Intelligence of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The objectives of strategic communication are: 

·        To raise awareness of the public and of civil servants concerning the potential of e-government to qualitatively and quantitatively improve interactions between the public (citizens, firms, unions, associations, communities, organizations in the “third sector”, etc.) and their governments, and also concerning the possible costs and risks involved.

·        Stimulate the participative interaction of the various publics targeted by the Forum through an open and transparent debate – before, during, and after the Forum – thus contributing the achieving the Forum’s objectives.

·        Build the necessary political support for substantial reforms in the public administrations (federal, state, and municipal).

·        Show Rio de Janeiro as a leader in the new electronic democracy, in a position to help other states and even other countries with implementation of their respective e-governments – that is, to create a new export industry in Rio de Janeiro.