1

Inaugural General Assembly Meeting Minutes and Transcripts

Meeting Minutes Date & Time: September 7th, 2010, 10:30-11:30, 14:00-16:40 Location: Grand Ballroom, Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Attendance: 120 Delegates from 49 cities and local governments worldwide Chair:

Mr. KIM Il-soo, Acting Secretary General of WeGO, for Meeting 1 Dr. Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO, for Meeting 2 Heads of Delegations Present: Madame Petra Roth, Mayor of Frankfurt Mr. Jordi William Carnes, Vice Mayor of Barcelona Madame Anjula Singh Mahor, Mayor of Agra Mr. Bakari Kingobi, City Director of Dar es Salaam Mr. Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Mayor of Dhaka Mr. Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda, Mayor of Harare Mr. Ananda Raj Pokharel, Mayor of Kathmandu Mr. Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman, Minister of Culture and Media of Khartoum State Mr. Geoffrey Odhiambo Majiwa, Mayor of City Council of Nairobi Mr. Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul Mr. Chandra K. Umaria, Special Administrator for Suva City Council Mr. Mohamed Béji Ben Mami, Mayor of Tunis Mr. Munkhbayar Gombosuren, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar Mr. Mao Zhi Xiong, Assistant Mayor and Secretary General of Chengdu Municipal Government Mr. Xu Zhengxian, Deputy Director-General of the General Office of Hunan Provincial People's Government Mr. Margani Muhammad Mustar, Deputy Governor of Jakarta Province Mr. Bohodir Rihsialievich Gaibnazarov, Deputy Mayor of Tashkent Mr. Peer Visner, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv Mr. Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Mr. Tesfaye Haile Gebreslassie from Ethiopia, Addis Ababa Madame Priscylla Beentjes from Amsterdam, the Netherlands Mr. Askar Rakhimzhanov from Astana, Kazakhstan Mr. Khalid Alakbarov from Baku, Azerbaijan Mr. Supachai Tantikom from Bangkok, Thailand Mr. Syamsul Bahrum from Batam, Indonesia Mr. Karl-Heinz Loeper from Berlin, Germany Mr. Glyn Evans from Birmingham, UK Mr. Catalin Grosu from Bucharest, Romania Mr. Santi Sène Hagne from Dakar, Senegal Mr. Chris Moore from Edmonton, Canada Mr. Kari Miskala from Helsinki, Finland

2

Mr. Kenneth Kin Cheng from Hong Kong Mr. Phan Xuan Ho from Hue City, Vietnam Mr. Jean-Luc Rochefort from La Manche, France Mr. Miguel Alves from Lisbon, Portugal Madame Lydia Pasalo Domingo from Manila, the Philippines Madame Josune Arcelus de Diego from Mexico City Mr. Uladzimir Lebedzeu from Minsk, Belarus Mr. Bernard de Broglio from Mosman, Australia Mr. Khalid Dawood Alzadjali from Muscat, Oman Mr. Tang Jianrong from Nanjing, China Mr. Gu Dedao from Ningbo, China Mr. Lionel Bordeaux from Paris, France Mr. Reynaldo Paul M. Imjada from Quezon, the Philippines Mr. Youm Jong Sun from Saga Prefectural Government, Japan Mr. Chris Vein from San Francisco Mr. Edilson Mougenot Bonfirm from São Paulo, Brazil Mr. Oleg V. Zubakov from Vladivostok, Russia Mr. Jiang Hua from Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government, China

Proceedings: l Meeting I called to order at 10:35. l Attendants to meeting introduced at 10:37 by Chair. l Meeting agenda introduced at 10:45 by Chair. l Outcomes from Preparatory Executive Committee Meeting briefed at 10:48 by Dr.

SONG Jung-hee, Acting Assistant Secretary General. l First agenda on draft statute tabled at 10:55. l Second agenda on election of president city tabled at 11:00. l Third agenda on appointment of vice president cities tabled at 11:03. l Inaugural Speeches delivered at 11:05 by President Oh Se-hoon and Acting

Executive Vice President Jordi William Carnes. l Fourth agenda on election of executive committee members tabled at 11:11. l Meeting adjourned at 11:20 for lunch until 14:00. l Meeting II called to order at 14:00. l e-Sharing for All Initiative presented at 14:05 by Assistant Secretary General. l Best e-Government Practices presented and shared at 14:15-14:50 by representatives

from Addis Ababa, Barcelona, and Berlin. l Meeting adjourned at 14:50 for coffee break. l Meeting resumed at 15:10 for best e-government practice presentations by

representatives from Birmingham, Frankfurt, and Lisbon. l The floor opened at 15:40 for discussions on future development of WeGO. l Last agenda on selection of Host City for the 2nd General Assembly 2012 tabled. l Meeting closed at 16:30 with remarks by President of WeGO.

Outcomes: l Draft statute proposed at the meeting was adopted as the statute of WeGO. l Seoul was elected as the first president city of WeGO.

3

l The president city appointed Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Nairobi, Paris, San Francisco, and São Paulo as Vice President Cities of WeGO, and Barcelona will assume the position of Executive Vice President City among them.

l Addis Ababa, Dakar, Edmonton, Jakarta, Khartoum, Suva, and Tunis were elected as members of Executive Committee along with the president and vice president cities.

l Following issues and ideas were raised during floor discussions on the future development of WeGO.

- How can we justify spending in big IT projects which usually show high rate of failure? How can we convince political leaders to put priority on IT over other topics? - raised by Madame Josune Arcelus de Diego from Mexico City

- How can we utilize good e-governance practices for conflict prevention, management, and resolution? - raised by Mr. Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman from Khartoum State

- Developing countries need technical and financial support from developed countries in e-governments. - raised by Mr. Ananda Raj Pokharel from Kathmandu

- Good e-government practices and solutions shared during the meeting are useful tools for cities with a wide range of interests, and e-government will appeal in Zimbabwe. In order to convince political leaders of the importance of e-government, we will need to establish very clear tones of policies. - raised by Mr. Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda from Harare

l Barcelona City Council was selected as the host of 2nd General Assembly 2012. l Executive Committee Meeting 2011 will also be held in Barcelona.

Future Business: l Members of Executive Committee will meet in Barcelona in 2011 for the Executive

Committee meeting. Dates and programs are to be determined. l Website of WeGO will work as a platform for further discussions and sharing of good

e-government practices among members.

4

Meeting Transcripts

10:35 Opening

Facilitator: Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen,

Now let us commence the Inaugural General Assembly of the World e-Governments Organization

2010 Meeting 1. As you consented in World Cities CIO Forum 2009, city of Seoul will work as an

acting Chair City. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Mayor Oh Se-hoon of Seoul

Metropolitan City who will chair the meeting. Please welcome Mayor Oh with big round of applauds.

10:36 Welcome Remark

Mr. Oh Se-hoon, Acting President of WeGO:

Good morning!

It is my great honour to preside over the inaugural general assembly meeting.

I will do my best for a productive meeting and a successful launch of WeGO.

Let me first introduce my colleagues at the interim secretariat of WeGO – Secretary General Mr. Kim

Il-soo who serves as Ambassador to International Affairs of Seoul and Assistant Secretary General Dr.

Jung-hee Song who serves as CIO of Seoul and has led the working group to organize this assembly

meeting.

Now let us open the meeting 1, and Mr. Kim will chair the meeting on my behalf.

10:37-10:45 Introduction of Participants

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General:

Good morning, distinguished mayors and delegates from the entire world,

With the mandate of Mr. President, it is my great honour to work with you at this General Assembly

session for the successful launch of the World e-Governments Organization. Before starting the

meeting, I would like to introduce each delegate to the General Assembly. When I call your name one

by one, please stand up and greet the other delegates. And also, ladies and gentlemen, when each

delegate stands up, please give him/her a warm welcome with applauds.

So let me introduce distinguished delegates. First, Madame Petra Roth, Mayor of Frankfurt; Mr. Jordi

William Carnes, Vice Mayor of Barcelona; Madame Anjula Singh Mahor, Mayor of Agra; Mr. Bakari

Kingobi, City Director of Dar es Salaam; Mr. Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Mayor of Dhaka; Mr.

Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda, Mayor of Harare; Mr. Ananda Raj Pokharel, Mayor of Kathmandu; Mr.

Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman, Minister of Culture and Media of Khartoum State; Mr. Geoffrey

Odhiambo Majiwa, Mayor of City Council of Nairobi; Mr. Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul; Mr. Chandra

5

K. Umaria, Special Administrator for Suva City Council; Mohamed Béji Ben Mami, Mayor of Tunis;

Mr. Munkhbayar Gombosuren, Mayor of Ulaanbaatar; Mr. Mao Zhi Xiong, Assistant Mayor and

Secretary General of Chengdu Municipal Government; Mr. Xu Zhengxian, Deputy Director-General

of the General Office of Hunan Provincial People's Government; Mr. Margani Muhammad Mustar,

Deputy Governor of Jakarta Province; Mr. Bohodir Rihsialievich Gaibnazarov, Deputy Mayor of

Tashkent; Mr. Peer Visner, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv; Mr. Rashed Lahej Al Mansoori from Abu

Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Mr. Tesfaye Haile Gebreslassie from Ethiopia, Addis Ababa; Madame

Priscylla Beentjes from Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Mr. Askar Rakhimzhanov from Astana,

Kazakhstan; Mr. Khalid Alakbarov from Baku, Azerbaijan; Mr. Supachai Tantikom from Bangkok,

Thailand; Mr. Syamsul Bahrum from Batam, Indonesia; Mr. Karl-Heinz Loeper from Berlin,

Germany; Mr. Glyn Evans from Birmingham, UK; Mr. Catalin Grosu from Bucharest, Romania; Mr.

Santi Sène Hagne from Dakar, Senegal; Mr. Chris Moore from Edmonton, Canada; Mr. Kari Miskala

from Helsinki, Finland; Mr. Kenneth Kin Cheng from Hong Kong; Mr. Phan Xuan Ho from Hue City,

Vietnam; Mr. Jean-Luc Rochefort from La Manche, France; Mr. Miguel Alves from Lisbon, Portugal;

Madame Lydia Pasalo Domingo from Manila, the Philippines; Madame Josune Arcelus de Diego

from Mexico City; Mr. Uladzimir Lebedzeu from Minsk, Belarus; Mr. Bernard de Broglio from

Mosman, Australia; Mr. Khalid Dawood Alzadjali from Muscat, Oman; Mr. Tang Jianrong from

Nanjing, China; Mr. Gu Dedao from Ningbo, China; Mr. Lionel Bordeaux from Paris, France; Mr.

Reynaldo Paul M. Imjada from Quezon, the Philippines; Mr. Youm Jong Sun from Saga Prefectural

Government, Japan; Mr. Chris Vein from San Francisco; Mr. Edilson Mougenot Bonfirm from São

Paulo, Brazil; Mr. Oleg V. Zubakov from Vladivostok, Russia; Mr. Jiang Hua from Zhejiang

Provincial People’s Government, China

10:45-10:48 Introduction to Meeting 1 Agenda

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you and my heartfelt welcome to all

participating today’s meeting. Now I will briefly explain to you about today’s agenda. You may refer

to documents at your seats or you may see the screen on the stage. At the morning session, the Acting

Assistant Secretary General, Madame Song Jung-hee will brief you on the results of the preparatory

Executive Committee meeting that convened in June this year before this General Assembly meeting.

After the report, the draft statute of this organization will be presented to the General Assembly for

adoption as the constitutional document of the organization. After the adoption of the Statute, we will

proceed with forming Presidency of the Organization through the election of the president city and

appointment of executive vice president and vice president cities. It will be followed by the launching

of the Executive Committee, and the morning session will end.

6

After a lunch break, there will be a presentation by Seoul on the theme of this General Assembly, “e-

Sharing for All” followed by presentations of best practices in e-governments by 7 participating cities

and local governments. Following the presentations, we will have a free discussion or talk on the way

to develop further our Organization. And any other issues from the members will be presented to the

General Assembly. Before closing of the General Assembly, we will discuss and decide the venue of

next General Assembly meeting. We will also at the same time let you know the venue of the next

Executive Committee meeting.

So, if there is no objection to the agenda, we will start today’s meeting with report by Madame Song

Jung-hee, Acting Assistant Secretary General. For information, she has been involved in the old

processes of initiating and preparing this General Assembly. So she is a key person in launching the e-

Government organization for which we are here today. Madame Song, please.

10:48-10:55 Briefing on the Preparatory Executive Committee

Dr. Jung-hee Song, Acting Assistant Secretary General:

Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!

This is Jung-hee Song temporarily in charge of Assistant Secretary General.

I am very honored to present this report about the preparatory Executive Committee meeting on

behalf of all attendees at the meeting.

The preparatory Executive Committee gathered in Seoul and worked together in June to share the

founding work of the World e-Governments Organization and discussed the potential agenda for

General Assembly including the statute. The aim of organizing this e-government collaborative

organization among cities are to achieve green growth through IT, to enhance digital capabilities in

governments, to attract more citizens participation, to use citizens knowledge and experiences, to

improve public service quality effectively, to bridge the digital gap within and among cities, and

finally to understand more about global neighbors and increase global cooperation. We believe wised

use of IT will enhance the value of citizens’ life globally. These are the cities whose representatives

are present today. Red stars are marked for the cities attended and contributed to the preparatory

Executive Committee meeting held in June.

WeGO was conceived at the World e-Government Mayors Forum in 2008. 33 cities were gratefully

attended the forum and adopted Seoul e-Government Declaration as a followed action item to the

forum. Following the outline in the declaration, we hosted the World Cities CIO Forum in 2009 to

7

detail the scope of the organization settings around the global cities’ e-governments and e-governance.

At the meeting, we decided to set up a secretariat of the Organization in Seoul, and Seoul volunteered

to host the Inaugural General Assembly. The participants agreed on selecting Mayor Oh of Seoul

Metropolitan City as a provisional president at the Inaugural General Assembly.

In June 2010, we held a preparatory Executive Committee meeting to collect international knowledge

to set up the stage for the Inaugural General Assembly. During the meeting, we discussed the draft

statute item by item and future development of the Organization. The preparatory Committee was

held in schedule and open announcement was sent to all cities and local governments.

These are the people who came as the representatives of their cities and contributed knowledge,

experiences, and expertise to the organizational setup. The participating cities to the preparatory

Executive Committee are Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Beijing, Frankfurt, Nairobi, Paris, São Paulo, and

Seoul.

The result of discussion at the preparatory committee was reflected in finalizing the draft statute to be

presented today as well as open suggestions were digested from interest cities online. Now the final

draft statute is on the table, awaiting the approval of participants.

The draft statute is composed as you see on the screen. The major structure has been kept the same

since its appearance on the website last year. Some parts have been modified slightly and elaborated

as well. I trust all participants reviewed the final version of the statute upon your arrival to the General

Assembly.

Comparing before and after the June Committee, I present here only a few modified parts. Selection

process for the President, Executive Vice President, and Vice Presidents are specified as follows. For

the income of the Organization, membership fee payment schedule has been clarified so that members

of our Organization will not be confused when to and how to pay the membership fee. Also, in Article

15, the description on the expenditure was specified as well with the input of participating cities.

Besides the discussion of the statute of the Organization, the participants to the June committee freely

talked about the future development of the WeGO. We touched upon many topics such items as listed

on the slid: Some in more details and others in sketch sense of directions.

The organizational structure is drawn like this. The General Assembly is on the top, and the Executive

Committee is underneath with President, Executive Vice President, and Vice Presidents are formed

8

under the Executive Committee. Under this forum umbrella, project group and special interest group

can be formed.

The Organization will use this official name and emblem. The official name is the World e-

Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments. The emblem shown here contains some

profound meetings for key words of global, equal chance, revolution, green, and IT. We also

considered other option to synchronize for the internet domain name. For the beauty of simplicity,

however, we decided to keep the name as shown on the slide.

This concludes my progress report for the foundation of the Organization. Thank you very much.

10:55-11:00 Agenda 1. Draft Statute

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you Madame Assistant Secretary General.

Now according to the meeting agenda, I would like to present to you the draft statute of WeGO. As

was already reported by Madame Song, the draft statute consists of Preamble, six Chapters, and

twenty two Articles. The text was debated at the World Cities CIO Forum in 2009 and was further

elaborated, as reported by Madame Song, at the preparatory Executive Committee meeting convened

in June this year. And I would like to inform you that since April this year, with the opening of official

website of WeGO, the text of draft statute was posted and circulated among all participants to invite

opinions and comments. Today I would like to report you that it looks that all member cities, in

principle, on the proposed provisions of the draft statute. Given the importance of the statute as the

basic document of the Organization, however, I would like to open the floor for the distinguished

delegates to express opinions and ideas on the contents of the statute.

Mr. Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman, Minister of Culture and Media of Khartoum

State: I find the statute sufficient representative of the shifting paradigm governing technology that

satisfies the growing needs of the world e-government. So I am in favor of supporting the motion for

adopting or approving the statute. Thank you.

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you, representative from Khartoum for

your supporting remark for this statute. As I mentioned, since this text has been circulated for quite a

long time, and we have got the supportive comments from all participants, I think we have general

consensus on the text of the statute. I would like to inform you that this document is the soft one, not

the hard one. So, at your suggestion, it’s open to adjustment and change. If you have constructive

ideas on how to improve the document, you can present it to the secretariat and we can discuss the

9

proposal for amendment at the next General Assembly meeting in 2012. In the meantime, I think

everybody agrees on this statute. So I would like to suggest that we pass this statute not by voting but

with your rounds of big hands. (Rounds of Big Hands)

11:00-11:03 Agenda 2. Election of President City

Acting President of WeGO:

I extend my cordial thanks to all the delegates for your support on the Statute. We will move on to the

next agenda and will elect the president city of WeGO. Again, Mr. Kim will chair the procedure.

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you, Mr. President. Now the next agenda is

the election of the president city in accordance with Article 11. The cities running for the president is

supposed to present their candidacy to the secretariat two months before the general assembly and the

candidate city that receives the largest number of votes at the general assembly shall become elected

as the president city and service its two-year term. Today I would like to present that Seoul is the only

city that has declared its candidacy as president, and Seoul’s candidacy was notified to all prospective

members in Mr. Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s letter in July 2010. However, as this is the founding general

assembly and the requirement for two months of prior notification before the general assembly had

better be waivered. If there is any other city that wishes to be elected as the president of the

Organization, it may declare and register its candidacy now. So I would like to open the floor for

registering candidacy for presidency for all members.

I think everybody agrees to the presidency of Seoul for this new organization. Maybe Seoul has been

responsible for preparing all the forum for last three years and now hosting this inaugural general

assembly. With no further candidacy I think we reached the unanimous decision to elect Seoul as the

president city of the inaugural general assembly of the world e-governments organization. Thank you.

11:03-11:05 Agenda 3.Appointment of Vice President Cities

Now Seoul is elected as the president city of the organization. According to article 11 of the statute,

mayor of Seoul, Mr. Oh Se-hoon, will assume the position of the president of the organization for the

next two years. Now he will proceed with appointing the Executive Vice President city and Vice

President cities according to the statute. President, please.

Acting President of WeGO: Vice president Cities will support President City to strengthen the

networks of regions where each city belongs. I expect that the cities recommended as the vice

president cities during the preparatory executive committee meeting held in June, 2010 will play

10

important roles for the future of WeGO as they have actively participated in the past forums and

meetings designed to inaugurate WeGO. So I appoint Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Nairobi, Paris,

Sao Paulo, and San Francisco as Vice President Cities of WeGO. Barcelona, in particular, will assume

the position of Executive Vice President city as it has made significant contributions to the

inauguration of WeGO for the last three years since 2008.

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you, Mr. President. All the cities that

belong to the presidency, would you please stand up? And ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm

rounds of applauds to congratulate the cities in presidency for their assuming the positions.

11:05-11:11 Speeches by President and Executive Vice President

Now, shall I hear some words from a newly-elected president and the executive vice president?

President: I thank you all for your kind support. It is my great pleasure that the city of Seoul has

become the founding president city of World e-Governments Organization. Seoul and vice president

cities will do our best to lay a foundation for sustainable development of WeGO until the next

assembly in two years. The Seoul Metropolitan Government hereby pledges that it will fulfill its

duties as the president city so that all member cities of WeGO can benefit from their participation in

this organization.

The city of Seoul will always be open to the opinions of the member cities and will take leadership in

coordinating any differences between members.

Also, we will work hard to establish a network for cities for cooperation and exchanges between

members while devising action plans that can be a practical help in developing e-government in our

member cities. The city of Seoul is committed to providing strong support for WeGO which will

include financial aid for running the organization using Seoul’s budget until the next assembly

convenes in 2012.

Once again, I extend my gratitude to all city representatives for your support for Seoul and the vice

president cities. I humbly ask all of you to join the efforts for the development of WeGO. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. Then let’s hear some words from Executive Vice President from city of

Barcelona.

Executive Vice President:

11

Dear mayor of Seoul Mr. Oh Se-hoon,

Dear mayors and city representatives,

It is an honour for me to accept this position on behalf of the mayor of Barcelona and the city as a

whole. When I was listening to the drums a few minutes ago, I had a feeling of having two ideas--

passion and harmony. I think these two concepts are what the mayor expressed – the duty we have to

carry on on the next years. That’s the feeling and that’s the devotion and passion and enthusiasm that

Barcelona wants to look at. Cities are playing key roles in international scenario. Now 50% of the

world population live in cities and urban areas. This projection obviously raises questions about the

abilities of cities to sustain its growth rate while maintaining adequate levels of prediction and

delivery of key public services.

Cities are becoming global players, attracter of foreign investment, competitiveness hoops, and

platforms for the combination of the local and international components. The move to e-government

and the network with the cities is the key element to overcome these challenges. We believe firmly

that the local authorities must find a space where they can make their voice be heard vis-à-vis with

national government and international institutions and a place to flourish collaboration among cities

around the world. We believe in citizens, not in clients, not only hosting several worldwide city

networks has a way of a start but because it is part of our KBM(Knowledge-based management) and

because using network is increasing efficiency in the public administration and improved public

services are increasing citizens’ quality of life and business competitiveness and citizens’ daily life

commitment: from infrastructure networks, water, electricity, gas, center heating to

telecommunication networks, municipal centers’ networks, traffic lights but also civil servants are

networked. For social services, police, inspectors and citizens through social networks, elderly people,

unemployed people, innovators, and citizens in general – that’s what WeGO should do and must be.

So thanks for your support and I hope we will work together. Gamsahapnida.

11:11-11:18 Agenda 4. Election of Executive Committee Members

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General: Thank you very much, Mr. Executive Vice

President. So now, the next item on the agenda is organization of the Executive Committee. As you

know, the executive committee is responsible for developing projects and ensuring smooth operation

of the organization as a sort of standing committee of the organization. According to Article 12, the

Executive Committee is to be organized with 15 or less members including president and vice

president cities. We have one president and seven vice president cities and they will become members

of the executive committee in accordance with Article 12. Now we have two options concerning the

formation of the executive committee. We may either proceed with rounding up the formation of the

12

executive committee by 8 member cities which belong to presidency or else we open the floor and

may elect not more than 7 cities as members of the executive committee as is provided in the statute. I

think there are quite a few cities interested in serving as the members of the executive committee. So

you may register your candidacy now.

Two cities of Khartoum and Suva registered their candidacy to become members of the executive

committee. No further candidacy for the executive committee?

Addis Ababa

City of Edmonton

Dakar City

So seven cities that registered for candidacy…

Baku, Azerbaijan also registered for the candidacy? Would anyone please confirm the candidacy of

Baku?

Okay, we have now seven candidacies for the members of executive committee. They are Suva, Fiji;

Khartoum, Sudan; Tunis, Tunisia; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Edmonton, Canada; Dakar City, Senegal;

and Jakarta, Indonesia.

So we have just seven candidacies for seven available seats. So it is the exact number to fill the fifteen

seats (of the executive committee). Otherwise, we have to undergo the process of voting. As the

number of seats matches the number of candidacies, however, I suggest as the representative of the

secretariat to accept their candidacy to the executive committee with your big applauds. Then we now

have 15 members of executive committee. Names of cities – 8 members which belong to presidency

and 7 members which I just mentioned - will be notified to you. Fifteen members of executive

committee is responsible for participating in the annual meeting, not a biennial meeting. Also, they

are responsible for developing projects and discussing policies of the Organization. So,

congratulations! So I think we covered all the agenda items for the morning session in a faster pace

than expected. But we have lunch break, and after that, we will start an afternoon session where we

will have presentations of best practices and also we will decide on the venue of the next general

assembly meeting. So let me ask Mr. President to wrap up this session with his remarks.

11:18 Closing Remark

President of WeGO: Thank you all for your support and participation. We are pleased to adopt the

13

Statute and organize the founding President, Vice President, and Executive Committee members

during the morning session. With this, we finished all the agenda for Meeting 1. Thank you.

11:18-14:00 Lunch

14:00-14:05 Introduction to Meeting 2 Agenda

President of WeGO:

Welcome back and thank you for being with us for the afternoon session despite a tight schedule.

Now let us start the Inaugural General Assembly Meeting 2.

In the morning session, we adopted the Statute and organized the presidency and the executive

committee of WeGO. Now we will need to discuss more in detail how WeGO can benefit all the

member cities. In this vein, this session will focus on the future development of WeGO around the

theme of “e-sharing for all.” Also, the venue for the second General Assembly meeting will be

discussed. Frankfurt Mayor will preside over this meeting. Madame Petra Roth, please.

Dr. Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and welcome. Thank you

for listening my moderation.

It is my pleasure to chair the second meeting of the Inaugural General Assembly.

During this meeting, we will discuss how WeGO should be developed in the future.

Based on the opinions raised from the World Cities CIO Forum 2009 and the

preparatory Executive Committee for the Inaugural General Assembly, Assistant

Secretary General, Dr. SONG Jung-hee, will present the future development of the

WeGO.

Now I would like to invite Dr. SONG for her presentation on the future development

of WeGO.

14:05-14:15 Presentation on e-Sharing for All Initiative

Dr. Jung-hee Song, Assistant Secretary General: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. This is Jung-hee

Song. On behalf of members of preparatory executive committee held in June, I would like to report

you in detail about the development of WeGO, the essence of WeGO project. The future of the

organizational growth will depend on the success of actual project outcomes to benefit cities in

14

participation and knowledge dissemination in the process of performing the project. A project can start

from these lists which our international community agreed that the outcomes of which would be

beneficial and significant to most of the cities. Projects which are relatively easy to start would be best

practice sharing which can be online site and offering some IT training programs to IT officials as

well as citizens. Some projects need more highly-skilled experts and cost issues remain to be solved.

Still, very significant and important impact can be made once it is performed. These are open

government, u-city model, generalized EA, estimation of e-government return on investment (ROI),

usability of service estimations, and there are more items I can describe to you if you raise questions

afterwards.

I did not create this list of potential projects myself. We actually surveyed forty one (41) cities who

said would come to this meeting during last two months. The survey shows the largest number of

cities answered they wanted WeGO to focus on increasing citizen services usage. The second

preferred subject topics are open government and sharing of best practices. The other preferred topics

are shown in the chart. Now we understand why we put the theme of this general assembly as “e-

sharing for all.” These are steps we think necessary to create a project – advanced cities which have

more experiences open up their cases of good practices at the off-line forum or on the online website

which we will provide. The potential recipient cities specify the areas as is and to be – that is a

benchmark request. WeGO will coordinate the joint projects among parties interested. Logical

projects, participation, and founding schemes are discussed and finalized before a specific project gets

approval. Especially, the projects are going to be funded by WeGO.

To help the communities in the project, WeGO will exert organizational efforts such as fund

resourcing, promotion for private participation and we will work with other international

organizations or institutions.

After all, we believe that participants in both sides will benefit from this collaborative project.

Contributors, mostly advanced cities, can receive global community recognition as well as their

industry will find more chances to go abroad. Advancing cities may save time and cost and avoid

trials and mistakes by introducing services which are already proved in other cities. Overall, e-

government projects will involve public officials and citizens in both sides and will increase mutual

friendship and networking in many other ways. Thank you.

14:15-14:50 Best e-Government Practice Presentations

15

Dr. Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Dr. Song. Thank you personally for

your presentation. The future development plan of the WeGO should continue to improve to ensure

the sustainable development of the WeGO and to encourage the participation of member cities and

local governments.

Before we open the floor for discussion, I would like to invite several member cities to share their

good practices of e-government with us. The floor discussion on the future development of the WeGO

will start after the presentations.

One of the aims of the General Assembly is to provide an opportunity to share and disseminate

knowledge and practices of e-governments. By sharing the e-government practices, the cities with

advanced experiences will enjoy the opportunities to improve its international profile, exert the global

leadership, and find overseas business opportunities while the cities in the beginning stage of e-

government will avoid mistakes by benchmarking good experiences of e-government.

In addition to sharing good practices, this meeting will provide a significant opportunity to build inter-

city networks among members. If you find any presentation useful for your city, I strongly encourage

you to comment, discuss, and request for benchmark so that we can promote exchanges and

cooperation among member cities. Now I would like to welcome the presentations.

The first speaker is Mr. Tesfaye Haile GEBRESLASSIE representing Addis Ababa. He is the General

Director of Information Communication Technology Development Agency of Addis Ababa City

Government and will present about E-Government Practice in the City Government of Addis Ababa.

And now I give the word to you. After you, Mr. Batlle from Barcelona will be following you. And

then Mr. Loeper from Berlin is following. And then we will have coffee break.

Now we will welcome Mr. GEBRESLASSIE representing Addis Ababa.

-Presentation by Mr. Gebreslassie-

Thank you, dear colleague. And now ladies and gentlemen, members of audience or the assembly, we

will have the chance for short comment. Otherwise, I will hand over the words to the next speaker. Is

there any comment to this representation of Addis Ababa? Then shall we hand over the words to the

next speaker? No refuse.

The next speaker is Mr. Joan Batlle, Head of International Cooperation on e-Government and

Innovation of Barcelona City Council, who represents Barcelona to talk about Barcelona, Urban

16

Innovation. The same procedure- after this presentation, you will have chance to make short

comments. Otherwise, we will discuss the overall theme after the end of the last speaker this afternoon.

Now the floor is yours.

-Presentation by Mr. Batlle-

Now I give the presentation to Mr. Loeper representing Berlin.

Mr. Carl-Heinz Loeper is the CIO of Berlin and will give a presentation around the theme of Service

City, Berlin.

-Presentation by Mr. Loeper-

Thank you so much for your presentation.

Thank you for your kind attention, and now we will have a coffee break until 15:10. After the coffee

break, we will continue to have presentations from the city of Birmingham, the city of Frankfurt, and

the city of Lisbon before we move on to the floor discussion for the future development of the WeGO.

Thank you.

14:50-15:10 Coffee Break

15:10-15:40 Best e-Government Practice Presentations

Dr. Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us

till the afternoon session. In this session, we will invite 3 more speakers from Birmingham, Frankfurt,

and Lisbon to share their e-government practices and knowledge. Then we will move on to the floor

discussion to discuss the prospects of future development of the WeGO.

Let us welcome the presentation from Birmingham first. Representing Birmingham, Mr. Glyn Evans,

Corporate Director of Business Change, will give a presentation about Creating a Citizens Account.

So, the floor is yours, Mr. Evans.

-Presentation by Mr. Evans-

Thank you so much, Mr. Evans, and now I will go next and introduce you Deputy Mayor and City

Treasure of City of Frankfurt, Mr. Uwe Becker. He is representing Frankfurt and will deliver a

presentation about Keep the Data Moving, not the Citizens. Mr. Becker, the floor is yours.

-Presentation by Mr. Becker-

Thank you very much, Mr. Becker, and now Senor Alves, Advisor to Deputy Mayor will give a

presentation about Open Governance – Participation and Technological Innovation in Lisbon. Where

is Mr. Alves from Lisbon?

17

-Presentation by Mr. Alves-

15:40-16:20 Open Discussion for Future Development of WeGO

Thank you so much, senor Alves for your presentation. And now ladies and gentlemen,

We’ve come to the floor discussion on the future development of WeGO. Now I will open the floor

for discussion. If you have opinions or suggestions for the future development of WeGO or comments

on the presentations, please use the electronic conference system at your table and click the button,

“Request to Speak” which is on the screen on the right. Please start. Please. Who will start?

Madame Josune Arcelus de Diego from Mexico City:

Hello,

I’ve paid a lot of attention to all of the presentations. I find them very interesting. However, the

duration of the presentations is so short while the scope of the presentation is so broad that I find it

sort of difficult to formulate questions or to get used to any topics. So I strongly suggest that from

now on the presentations will be less broad. Or e-government strategies perhaps can have a little bit

more depth into each separate project. That’s one suggestion. Another comment that I wanted to make

or other types of topics that I would want to see is how we are going to justify spending in IT. I see a

lot of cities that are from developing countries such as Mexico City. I don’t know about others, but I

find it very difficult to justify such big projects that spend high amount of money and have such high

rate of failure. In IT projects, I think there is a statistical number that says 50% of IT projects fail not

only in government but also in private sector. So I find this is a big issue for all of us because money

in government is scarce, and it’s also citizens’ money. So how we are going to approach that will be

interesting. Finally, I have a question about how to get the topic of IT to higher levels. I can see

several major cities here from Frankfurt and Sao Paulo, not only Seoul mayor himself. So the question

here or issue I would like to raise is that how we can get IT to be an important topic such as

transportation or poverty fighting because I do believe that IT is a good infra to fight or to solve other

problems but I find it very difficult as an IT person and I find many CIOs including mine have

difficulties raising the importance of IT or convincing someone else in political level of e-government.

I don’t know if you would like me to summarize, but these are some issues.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Ms. Arcelus. My opinion to your speech is

that we need more best practices through which we can see how e-government best develop education,

poverty fighting, etc. But this is only my own opinion, and I think we will get an answer from

Secretary General or Assistant Secretary General.

18

Dr. Jung-hee Song, Assistant Secretary General: Well, on behalf of the participating

members of executive committee, I can give my ideas and other participants can add and elaborate

more details. About the first question, presentations we made today are rather short and very broad

because it was inaugural meeting. Many cities have their e-government system but no one knows

what other are interested in. I think that’s why we have to create a website to share best practices or

projects so that we can learn what kind of supply and demand exist in each city. In this way, we can

request information and information available will be mixed and will finally find its match. Anyway,

what I am trying to do with our WeGO website is that we will post all the presentations on the WeGO

website with consent of presenters. After presentations, everyone can comment using a lot of SNS

tools and web 2.0 tools – you can raise questions or gather comments from other community members

and also you can get answers from the presenter. So we can understand what the motivation of the

presenters was and also what kind of specific inquiries are to be answered. Therefore, rather than

having one-shot Q&A, we can take it over to the presentation material and we can elaborate topics as

time goes on. Therefore, once the presentation is done, it’s only a beginning of the topic. So it’s a kind

of open discussion of each presentation. That’s what I am trying to do. In that way, presenters will

meet their intention – to get more value out of their presentations. Second question is ROI issue. As I

presented in the scope of the future project of WeGO, many participants in this general assembly

mentioned that they were curious about what is the right ROI of electronic government – whether e-

government services will be really effective for the politics of their governance. I should be in the

long run, but that kind of ROI issue in public domain should be studied by proper academic institution

as well as IT specialists. So it’s a kind of big topic. This is why I categorized that ROI issue was not a

simple project we can address in a short term. Rather, it’s a significant topic. So I think a special

interest group should be formed to study this ROI issue in e-governance. Everyone including yourself

can initiate and form a special interest group.

And the last question. As CIO, this technical problem… Sometimes we think we are ready to help

solve the real problem, but the one who has power should ponder whether it can be. It’s a kind of risk

management, but it’s going to be solved technically or it’s more of human interaction issue to solve

the problem and change the way of thinking. That’s why technologies can change people’s life and

their behavior, but that process is slower than we, technicians, think. So that kind of negotiation is

necessary between CIOs and their head – mayors or executive-level officials. So I think that’s why we

created this forum and we urge that many mayors should attend this meeting accompanying a

properly-designated person who can cease the problem in a technical and systematic way. I think

that’s why our forum was formed around the government level. I am not sure it I answered to your

questions.

19

Madame Josune Arcelus de Diego from Mexico City:

Yes, you gave correct answers to three questions. Thank you.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Dr. Song, please go ahead with your answers.

Dr. Jung-hee Song, Assistant Secretary General: These are not answers to questions raised,

but I really thank all the presenters today.

I learned a lot from Mr. Gebreslassie from Addis Ababa. Your city showed a broad ICT master plan on

the future of e-government in Addis Ababa. I hope to hear more about the progress next time. I hope

your city will bear outcomes in upcoming years and post interim outcomes and progress on the

website of WeGO.

Mr. Joan Batlle from Barcelona City, your presentation was about a very interesting project. In Seoul,

we call such projects that remodel old districts as new town projects or, in other terms, u-city projects

for old town remodeling. I had a chance to visit this district early this year, and I couldn’t imagine

how it looked before transformation. I was really amazed that this ubiquitous or common ICT

infrastructure can change the picture of the town itself as well as reduce maintenance cost for the city

and residents. Also, a wide range of service companies created a lot of jobs, from which I believe

many cities can learn.

And the presentation by Mr. Loeper from Berlin offered a very good example on how we can create

private-public partnership. In Seoul, it’s always very difficult to let our portal sites be operated by

private companies because of legal issues, but I imagine that in the future this is the way cities can

change their portals which talk to the

ir citizens. What I mean is.. we don’t have to operate our own portals to service people by ourselves.

We will let our civil partners do the job for the city, and they can make profit out of it. Maybe citizen

will find it more useful to use those portals than a portal operated by governments because it

sometimes meet the citizens’ needs better as the needs of citizens are not limited to governmental

services but they need private services for the same purpose. In this sense, people in Berlin can enjoy

services at a very cheap price as it saves tax.

And the city of Birmingham presented Citizen Account. I think this is one of the ideal services

everyone wants. One portal for one person project, for example, is all based on solid database as well

20

as very good CRM structure. I think most of the cities will want to have Birmingham’s capabilities.

Before I continue the comments about presentations, I heard there was a request to speak from other

participant.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Mr. Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman,

Minister of Culture and Media of Khartoum State. The floor is yours.

Mr. Mohammed Awad Ahmed Osman from Khartoum State: Thank you. Thank you for

our participant from Addis Ababa for his exciting and stimulating presentation. I am still concerned

about some countries or many or several countries witnessing internal conflicts which affect every

aspect of life. Sometimes they affect directly the services which are provided by governments. So (I

was wondering) when and whether we can utilize the e-government experiences and systems to

resolve these conflicts - from participatory perspective by letting the citizens to use in different

aspects on how, for example, to develop indigenous system for resolving conflicts and for providing

good offices to develop or provide capacity building programs to improve the capacity of

governments to resolve these conflicts. So if some of the entries which gave presentations still witness

such kind of conflicts which we see in news for the last two days, I wonder if we can also utilize this

system to help provide system for, for example, conflict prevention, system, management, and

resolution by utilizing these good practices we have witnessed. Thank you very much.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Mr. Osman. And Dr. Song or some other

remarks? Please push the “Request to Speak” button. Yes, Kathmandu, Acting Mayor.

Mr. Ananda Raj Pokharel from Kathmandu: My name is Ananda Raj Pokharel from

Kathmandu, Nepal. Developed countries have digital system in place to provide public services to

citizens, but the developing countries are dealing with the issue of poverty. How can make people in

essential needs deal with e-governments and e-societies? So I truly request to the developed countries

to support technically and financially provide e-governments to developing countries and cities. This

is my request.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you so much. Next remark? Mr. Chris Moore

from Edmonton, Canada.

Thank you very much. One of things that I have been thinking a lot of is dealing with information and

21

access to information. We’ve released a lot of our ideas about how we operate the city to the public.

We also used technology, things like cloud computing. A lot of our information, private and public

information right now, is stored outside of the city and actually outside of the country. I see great

advantages with that, but there is also a concern that some countries or jurisdictions may be putting up

walls and removing some of their flexibility. So what I would like to see in the future of WeGO is that

we would be preparing a sponsor with sub-project or initiative to have cities discuss the possibilities

about sharing the barriers, or remove, that data can be saved and retrieved between countries and

between cities. And I think that will advance the cause of sharing and providing access to information.

And it will also address some issues we are talking of. Thank you.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you, Mr. Moore, and the next words from Mr.

Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda, Mayor of Harare.

Mr. Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda from Harare: Thank you. I must say that being a person

who is old-fashioned having been in legal profession in the last thirty-six years, I am fascinated by

what is about in terms of e-government. And also, being a political mayor of a modern metropolis, I

find most solutions provided here potentially useful as a tool to get across to a city that has a wide

ranging diversity of interest. And, I am particularly intrigued by the project of participatory budgeting

because to have an inclusive city, you have to seek the views of the people that you seek to serve. And

one way of doing that is through e-government, and we are very lucky in that right in Zimbabwe that

we have that approach. We are among the highest literacy rates in the world, so e-government will

appeal here. Like the colleagues from Mexico City, of course, we have priorities that are present. In

order to press the priorities, I think you need to establish very clear tones of policies that we can get

information and synthesize and address needs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. There are no more questions. So shall I choose to give the opportunity to the

secretariat? Okay, adopted. And then I will give the words to the secretariat.

Dr. Jung-hee Song, Assistant Secretary General: I will try to give a couple of comments to

the last two presentations. The presenter from City of Frankfurt talked about the importance of data-

based services. Usually we use the term of citizen-centered services, but when serving the citizens

with one portal for one citizen, as I said, the data is most critical. And it’s not just about a single

citizen. You have to know about demographic issues and the statistics in the needs of citizens. So we

have to provide lots of data to the citizens to learn about citizens’ needs and the usage of information-

22

based services. By analyzing the patterns on service usage, the governments will know what services

that citizens want, what services are useful to citizens, and which areas need to invested more. That

sort of pro cycle will really benefit the citizens and governments in the end. I think the city of

Frankfurt provided useful services to citizens in that way.

The city of Lisbon presented several wiki-typed innovative services. I think the targets of most of the

services are students in college who are technically capable or those who are interested in software.

But these people are the target group who will contribute their knowledge and skills to build e-

services generated by citizens. So I think this is a very good example to use your citizens to contribute

more to e-government services of your city. Thank you very much.

16:20-16:30 Selection of Host City for General Assembly 2012

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: Thank you for the last remarks, Ms. Song. And if there

are no other remarks, we have come to close the floor discussions.

With this we will wrap up the discussions regarding the future development of the WeGO, I believe

today’s discussions laid an integral foundation for the WeGO to grow into a substantial global

network among cities in pursuit of the sustainable development utilizing e-government.

Now we will go on to the last agenda of Meeting 2 and select the host city of the 2nd General

Assembly 2012. And I do have some personal remarks. I think the discussions and answers show us

how urgently we need another general assembly because, in the next assembly, we will hear the

sustainable developments of e-governance services and probably will have answers to our questions

and big results in two years.

Now, we come just in time, and at this point, I ask the general assembly to select the host city of the

next general assembly meeting 2012. If your city is interested in hosting the 2nd General Assembly

2012, please raise you and hand and show your interest.

I see the city of Barcelona expressed interest.

Mr. Joan Batlle from Barcelona: Barcelona will be glad to organize the next meeting of

General Assembly in 2012 if the members accept.

Petra Roth, Vice President of WeGO: So short and such a big present for us and I must say

23

“thank you”. I think it’s a great idea, and next time we all will see in Europe to have a look of Europe

and its initiative. Dear Mayor Oh, it was your initiative, and now it is coming to Europe. Thank you,

and thank you, the representative from Barcelona for your invitation.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all the members for making concerted efforts to make this

meeting successful and productive.

Now I would like to invite the Seoul Mayor, Mr. Se-hoon Oh for his closing remarks.

I will go ahead and will give the stage over to the host, Mayor of Seoul, and then we will give our

hands for the offer of Barcelona.

16:30-16:40 Closing Remarks

Distinguished mayors and delegates,

Before we close this Inaugural General Assembly, I would like to thank you all for the strong support

and cooperation you have extended to WeGO. With the effort and work of all the participating cities,

we have made the huge achievement of successfully launching the World e-Government Organization

which will become the best international organization in the area of e-Government.

From now on, the future of WeGo hinges on all cities that have participated today.

I ask you to share the best e-Government practices of your city through either the WeGO Secretariat

or its website. I also recommend you to take advantage of the WeGO network if you wish to

benchmark any exemplary e-Government cases.

And in the meantime, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will make every effort to make sure that

the Secretariat can help share the best e-Government practices and strengthen related exchanges

between member cities.

To that end, we will pursue diverse projects through collaboration with other international

organizations.

Furthermore, we will continue to exert our effort to ensure all member cities will be able to establish

excellent e-government and achieve sustainable city development through a global network of cities.

24

I sincerely hope to see the upgraded e-governments in our member cities at the 2nd WeGO General

Assembly in 2012.

Once again, I want to thank all of the city representatives for your active participation.

Mr. Il-soo Kim, Acting Secretary General:

Thank you, distinguished mayors and delegates. Today we had a very successful meeting, and

tomorrow we will start the sessions at 9 AM. Workshops are organized in the morning and tour to IT

and culture facilities are in the afternoon. I have to add one comment about the future schedule of

Executive Committee meeting. We are very happy that the city of Barcelona will host the next

General Assembly meeting in 2012. The Executive Committee meeting will be convened in 2011, and

Barcelona also volunteered to host that Executive Committee meeting next year. Also, Mr. President

Oh Se-hoon would like to round the tables to meet each of you. So please remain seated for the

greetings with the president. Thank you very much.

Minutes and Transcripts Submitted by: Ms. Sunyoung Jung Secretariat of WeGO Email: wego2010@seoul.go.kr Phone: +82 2 6361 3116 Website: www.we-gov.org