One online service that we think would greatly improve Brunei’s eGovernment websites is an online statistics database providing detailed data of Brunei’s statistics, including data on the economy, population and environment. The best place to find tables of data on Brunei over the past 10 years isn’t in a Bruneian website but instead from the UN statistics database.
The best data source from a Bruneian website is from the BEDB (Brunei Economic Development Board) or from the JPKE (Department of Economic Planning and Development) website. At the time of writing this, the JPKE website is down and cannot be accessed so we refer to the BEDB website.
The current Brunei system is based on reports covering only a few years so finding data over a large range of years is difficult. The PDF format makes exporting the data and graphs for research troublesome. Finding historical data is also difficult.
This problem can be solved through an online statistics database like the Australian website. The Australian service, which is the model for the online service we would like to see implemented, divides data into categories and is much easier to navigate through the website. It centralises all statistics so that any statistics we want to find about Australia can be found on one website directly from the main page. The Australian Bureau of Statistics service allows for downloading of data as an Excel file which makes any comparisons and computations easier to carry out. The Bruneian website certainly looks nicer but in terms of functionality the Australian service is much better than Brunei’s.
Brunei should build a similar online service to the Australian one. All the statistics of Brunei would be converted to electronic format and stored on this website for anyone to use. The data would be split into categories and can be downloaded in Excel format for ease of use. By centralising all the data, it will be a “one stop shop” for anyone looking for statistics on Brunei. By keeping the site simple and easy to navigate, there will be less chance the website goes down as the JPKE website currently is and no one would get “lost” in the website.
This service would greatly increase the amount of information people have about Brunei, helping to educate the younger generation and making research on Brunei easier and more detailed. Currently, it is easier to get data on Brunei over a large range of years from foreign organisations that from using our own websites. One of the main points of eGovernment is to help information pass easily between departments and to the public. But statistics, one of the most basic forms of information, is not easily accessible by the public with the current system. This idea of an online statistics database would be very helpful for students, teachers, government departments and the public to access the entire archive of all of Brunei’s statistics quickly and easily.
References
Brunei Economic Development Board website http://www.bedb.com.bn (Date accessed: 5th April 2010)
Australian Bureau of Statistics website http://www.abs.gov.au (Date accessed: 5th April 2010)
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