The video-seminar "Single Window Government: Does it Improve Delivery of Public Services and Investment Climate?" involved over 200 participants from 13 countries, including Russia, to discuss how to transform government with the help of technology. It was held on January, 26.

Many countries are in the process of designing and implementing single window delivery mechanisms for various public services. There is a growing demand to learn about best practices and lessons learned from early implementers in order to avoid common pitfalls and maximize returns on investment. Single window applications have often provided politically attractive and practical entry points for more complex public sector reform and private sector development agenda. More and more countries are embracing this approach to modernizing their public sector after struggling for a while with fragmentation and silos. Is the single window government the way to go for all countries or there is an alternative?

New Brunswick, one of the least wealthy provinces in Canada, has implemented single window, multi-channel government, starting in the early 1990's. The motivation for this initiative in New Brunswick was to increase convenience for the citizen and business in conducting their dealings with government. In addition to achieving this goal there have been other benefits such as ability to reduce the number of government offices, ability to optimize staff, development of a local private sector industry with expertise in consulting and application development for e-Government and creation of marketable software for launching e-Government initiatives quickly and easily.

The single window concept has been already adopted by the province of Northern Cape in South Africa as that country re-invented government in the post-apartheid era. Staff from Service New Brunswick (SNB) receives visitors from many countries anxious to emulate the success in this province. According to the SNB’s team, "our single-window, multi-channel, citizen-centered approach is one that is being adopted and embraced by many jurisdictions now and we are often kept quite busy showcasing our services to states, municipalities and countries throughout the world. Further, our partnering approach provides economic development to our private industries while also generating revenue for the province and providing an invaluable service for our citizens. It truly is a win-win-win scenario!" The World Bank's Doing Business in 2005 report is unequivocal in recommending the use of ICT to improve business environment, stressing that G2B applications like "electronic one-stop shops for new businesses," especially when accompanied by the regulatory reform and business process reengineering, can be a powerful tool to "help create job opportunities for women and young people, encourage businesses to move into the formal economy, and promote economic growth."

This video-seminar explored the single window concept and tools for reinventing government and examine some best practices from Canada, Chile and other countries, including Russia and other CIS countries.

Can the single window approach improve delivery of public services and investment climate? This question was answered clearly in the affirmative if accompanied by corresponding simplification, deregulation and process re-engineering.

Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of the Information Society, was among the active participants of the video-seminar.

For more information please refer to the World Bank site.