Wheatley presents GoJ portal to diaspora in Washington
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Dr Andrew Wheatley, yesterday made a presentation on the recently launched Government of Jamaica (GoJ) portal to members of the Jamaican Diaspora, at a Town Hall Meeting in Washington DC.
Speaking at the meeting, also attended by Audrey Marks, Ambassador of Jamaica to the United States of America, the minister said the GOJ portal arose out of the need to create a space that brings all government services into one place.
“No longer will you have to remember all 200-plus of the different websites of the government agencies which provide the services you are looking for. Now, you will only need to remember one! You will only need to go to one place to access all of the services that government provides online. This is a game changer!” Wheatley told his Washington-based audience.
He pointed out that another game-changing initiative was zero-rated access to all government websites and online services. The minister said that with this initiative, forged in partnership with Jamaica’s major telecoms providers, access can be gained by Jamaicans to any Government website or service without costing citizens anything when accessed via wired or wireless broadband services.
With this initiative, the minister noted, citizens could still visit and use online government services (pay taxes, register for a passport and more) even without any credit on their mobile devices, if their data plans were exhausted, or even if their Internet bill at home was overdue.
“We removed the barrier of cost to access all of these government services….now we have made it even easier to get to them,” the technology minister said.
Wheatley said the initiative is part of a 10-point plan to ensure that Government promotes seamless interaction and engagement with citizens; employs methods for businesses and investors locally and overseas to easily transact business with the Government of Jamaica; and uses technology to make the provision of services to the Jamaican citizenry more efficient and cost effective.
