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Policy

Academic: 80 per cent of e-govt projects fail

By Kelly Ng | 26 May 2009

The Head of Online Services at the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development has revealed the government’s plans to increase e-services from six to 35 per cent of business transactions by 2012. However, 60 to 80 per cent of e-government projects around the world fail, Dr Nabeel Al Qirim, Associate Professor, College of Information Technology, UAE University, warned in an interview with FutureGov.

“They fail due to the lack of a clear, shared nation-wide vision or collaboration within government. Governments are bureaucratic political entities, and sometimes they do not interact or cooperate with one another,” Qirim said.

Despite the gloomy statistics, Qirim believes that it is the right time for Abu Dhabi to drive e-services. “E-government technology is not fully mature, which explains why mistakes are common. But the picture is becoming clearer and we are learning from mistakes,” says Qirim.

He is confident that an eGovernment project can succeed through effective project and change management, adequate human resources and expertise, and sufficient investment.

Currently, on the average, less than 50 per cent of internet users worldwide access e-government web sites. Less than 20 per cent of those transact online. “But there will be a real emergence of e-government services in the next five years,” predicts Qirim.

Last year, 9,000 transactions in Abu Dhabi amounted to income worth 20 million Dirham (US$5.4 million). If successful, the new project will more than double the government’s income from online business transactions to 40 million Dirham.

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