The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The development of the apps which began almost a year ago by the G2C Office under the Office of the Prime Minister was formally launched on Thursday by Lyonchhen which saw the attendance of members from Office of the Prime Minister, Cabinet and the relevant agencies.
Speaking during the launch Lyonchhen said that the mobile apps will aid in achieving efficient delivery of the public services in order to achieve Bhutan’s development goals.
‘Doctors’ appointment’ app under JDWRNH can be used by patients to make appointments for off-hour Clinic (4pm-7pm) at the hospital. ‘RNR market info’ under Ministry of Agriculture will help in providing RNR related market price information of various markets across the country. ‘Quit Addiction’ app under Bhutan Narcotics Control Authority will allow self assessment of an individual to check if one is an addict, get counseling from the health officials and provide information on narcotics rules.
The ‘Druk Namshay’ app under National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology will provide information on weather and flood alerts in the country, and ‘Tax info’ app under Ministry of Finance will help in searching TPN, BTC and provide notification from DRC.
Two apps under Election commission of Bhutan, ‘Electoral’ app can be used to check Voter Registration Status, postal ballot registration and the polling booth and ‘Polling info’ app for the ECB officials to send reports during the election time.
Similarly, other apps include POL Depo, POL Mcoupon, and Dzongkha for kids, Dzongkha Dictionary, Dzongkha Competency, Thromde Space Booking, Thromde water billing and Thromde Services.
The mobile apps were developed with support from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.
The head of the G2C office, Sonam P. Thaye said that the development is perhaps the easy part but sustaining the operations of the apps will be crucial. “From here on much depends on our collaborating agencies. Our role will be limited to providing technical backstopping for one year for stabilization of the mobile apps and monitoring the operations of the apps through the Annual Performance Agreements.”
The applications are available for download on both android and iOs platforms and the links to the applications are provided in the G2C website. Frequent updates and bug fixing strategies will also be followed by the concerned agencies and G2C office.
With the launch of the 15 mobile service delivery apps, there are now 96 e-services under the G2C office.
The services (listed in the table) were identified through different levels of analysis and consultations over a period of time.
