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Central Government

Four Asian countries make e-government top ten

By Robin Hicks | 9 March 2009

Four Asian countries have made the top ten rankings of a global e-government study, with Singapore moving above the United States to top the table for the first time.

The city-state ends four years of US dominance of Japan’s Waseda University study, which assesses the development of e-government practices in 34 countries.

It is also the first time an Asian country has led the rankings. Japan ranked fifth, behind the United Kingdom. Korea came sixth and Taiwan eighth. Sweden, Canada, Finland and Germany also featured in the top ten.

Countries were ranked on six key areas, including the strength of broadband, cellular and PC networks, national portal, electronic services delivery, computerisation of government processes, the chief information officer and e-government promotional activities.

“From merely providing services, governments have established virtual spaces for citizens to have their voice,” said the director of Waseda University Institute of e-government, Dr Toshio Obi.

The report also found that only a few countries have recorded a high level of use of their e-services, which called for these services to be better marketed.

It was recommended that cyber laws and digital authentication be put in place as governments move online. “In the near future, both Web 2.0 and mobile government will be the hottest issues in e-government,” said Dr Obi.

On receiving the award, Phoon Chew Ping, Singapore’s director of the Ministry of Finance (pictured), noted: “Our focus is to create an integrated government that works seamlessly to provide convenient and responsive services to our people and businesses, through the use of ICT. We are glad that this effort has been recognised.”

However, Ms Phoon noted that there were many areas which could be improved. “We will work on these areas to continue to look for new areas to serve our customers even better,” she added.

Singapore’s top spot in the survey follows February’s launch of IDA Interational, a consultancy service set up by the city-state’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to aid other countries with their e-government development plans.

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