How will Information technology help build a government "that works better and costs less?"An Interview with Guanajuato Gov. Vicente Fox Quesada.

Q: As Guanajuato's governor, what are your goals and can technology help you achieve those goals?


A: In Guanajuato we have a very clear goal, as it was determined by Guanajuato's people, and that is to make our state a land of opportunities. That implies leaving behind paternalism, to fully go into a new government/society relationship, where the government supplies opportunities and society responds with responsibility to those opportunities.

But before we can achieve this goal, we have five challenges to work on: economic development, social development, educational transformation, a law-abiding state and a good government. Among the priorities that the citizens have set to us, there's the need for an effective, talented, modern and technological government -- in short, a less-costly government that's capable of doing more, and here's where technology fully fits in.

I think the revolutionary changes we've seen in the last five years, in terms of information handling and communications, are really incredible. In Guanajuato, we have been intensively working on reinventing the government. Our first plan is to cut, by 40 percent, the size and the cost of government by the year 2000. These kinds of challenges are only possible with a technological revolution as our foundation.

Q: Do you see any differences in the use of information technology by the federal government as compared to the use by state governments?

A: I think that all of us are going forward in the use of technology with regard to the acquisition of equipment, but we are all not using it with the same efficiency, with the same talent, and above all, with the same political and philosophical principles that the use of technology supposes.

For example, the federal government, and other governments, have included a lot of technology and yet haven't reduced their operation costs. This 40 percent that I talk about represents really extraordinary figures that, instead of being spent for government operations, are invested in social programs. It is not just buying computers that is important; they have to be used efficiently.

Q: In different events and public speeches, you have talked about the state government's home page. What has been the response to the site?

A: An intense communication with the citizens. There are thousands of entries in the home page of Guanajuato state, so there are thousands of comments being made -- the suggestions, the critics, every single one of them is attended to. This is like putting a mailbox for complaints in a company. I think that we are being sent a lot of suggestions to improve the duties of the state government.

We are the only state in Mexico to have the public accounts in an Internet page -- income and outgo, month by month, every day. This information is dynamic, so all the citizens know what is happening today related to income and outgo.

All the programs related to society and the citizenry are also registered there. For example, we have the Alliance for the Country or the programs of Microcredit. They are all registered and the citizen can get to know who is getting the benefits of a program, so there is no doubt about the correctness of its application. The public work is also there. Information about what is being done in the state at any given moment -- drainage work, the construction of a well, a school, a street, a health center -- is loaded into the Internet.

What's the point? To gain the trust of the citizens by showing that resources are being used correctly. This is the end of all doubts about the optimal assignation