By Joshua Chambers
South Korea, Australia and Singapore have the best e-government initiatives in the world, the United Nations E-Government Survey has said.
Released this week, the survey scores all 193 United Nations member states every two years. It scored governments on their overall e-government efforts, as well as specific analysis of: online public service delivery; e-participation; collaborative governance; mobile delivery; digital inclusion; and open government data.
South Korea retained the top spot in the rankings, having won the position in 2010 and again in 2012. “By having an adequate infrastructure for IT development and sustainability, the Republic of Korea established a world-class transparent and efficient online presence and an equally impressive e-mobile presence,” the report said.
These services “serve to maintain its vanguard position and help develop more citizen-centric strategies and projects in e-governance in future,” it added.
Australia ranked second, and the survey praised its e-government portal: australia.gov.au. “The portal offers an extensive list of e-services and forms, both at the federal and local levels, as well as connections to national, local and regional government websites,” it said.
Singapore was ranked third, with a big improvement from 10th in the previous survey. The survey praised its work on mobile government, and its multi-agency programme - the Alliance for Corporate Excellence (ACE) - which groups together systems and operating environments for human resources, finance and procurement into a common shared system.
“The financial and human cost savings of the ACE programme will not only benefit the government, but also citizens, by providing time-efficient and cost-saving services that are only possible with appropriate IT development,” the survey said.
Singapore also scored second in the category of online service delivery, one place above Korea and two places above Japan.
New Zealand was ranked 9th, and was praised for its online transactional services and its e-government transformation plans leading up to 2017.
Malaysia was the next-best ranked of countries in the Asia-Pacific, coming 52nd. The Philippines came 95th, Vietnam ranked 99th, Thailand ranked 102 and Indonesia ranked 105th.
Source: http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2014/jun/25/korea-australia-and-singapore-top-un-e-government-/