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07/05/2004
Survey shows e-government development slowing
UK e-government initiatives do not appear to be hitting home as, according to a recent survey, the UK is slipping down the global internet league table.
The annual survey by Accenture revealed that the UK e-government programme had slumped from sixth in 2002 to ninth position in the global league table.
For the fourth consecutive year, Canada was ranked top out of the 22 countries evaluated in terms of the "maturity" of the e-government presence.
Singapore and the United States shared second-place, followed closely by Australia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which were tied in fourth place. France ranked eighth, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom tied for ninth, and Belgium, Ireland and Japan jointly held eleventh position.
The study found that the pace of e-government development was slowing down with most countries reaching plateaus in terms of innovation, progress and impact related to the breadth and depth of services that were offered online.
As a result, even the countries with the most-advanced e-government presences still have work to do to derive greater public-sector value.
The quantitative and qualitative study of electronic government examined those governments providing information about services, as well as the ability to conduct government transactions, via the internet.
The fifth annual survey found that in global terms, the majority of regular Internet users visit government websites only to gather information on topics of interest such as tourism or health, rather than to conduct online transactions such as filing taxes and applying for passports.
The Accenture study was based on a sample of 5,000 regular internet users in 12 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a quantitative assessment of the "maturity" of e-government services in 22 countries.
People who use the internet said they would conduct transactions with governments online if it would "saving time and money".
However, despite such interest in online government services, the study found that citizens rarely took advantage of them. The top reasons that the Internet users surveyed gave for rarely or never visiting government Web sites include difficulty finding the correct site (up to 26%), ease of conducting business by telephone (up to 20%) or in person (up to 34%), on-line privacy concerns (up to 18%) and Internet security issues (up to 17%).
“While there appears to be good understanding of the potential for e-government to save time and money, there is a considerable gap in citizen expectations that it can actually deliver on that promise,” said Stephen J. Rohleder of Accenture.
He said that this posed a challenge for those striving to become high-performance governments.
"They need to find innovative new ways to market their offerings, improve citizen awareness of the benefits, and increase take-up of online services,” he said.
(SP)
The annual survey by Accenture revealed that the UK e-government programme had slumped from sixth in 2002 to ninth position in the global league table.
For the fourth consecutive year, Canada was ranked top out of the 22 countries evaluated in terms of the "maturity" of the e-government presence.
Singapore and the United States shared second-place, followed closely by Australia, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which were tied in fourth place. France ranked eighth, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom tied for ninth, and Belgium, Ireland and Japan jointly held eleventh position.
The study found that the pace of e-government development was slowing down with most countries reaching plateaus in terms of innovation, progress and impact related to the breadth and depth of services that were offered online.
As a result, even the countries with the most-advanced e-government presences still have work to do to derive greater public-sector value.
The quantitative and qualitative study of electronic government examined those governments providing information about services, as well as the ability to conduct government transactions, via the internet.
The fifth annual survey found that in global terms, the majority of regular Internet users visit government websites only to gather information on topics of interest such as tourism or health, rather than to conduct online transactions such as filing taxes and applying for passports.
The Accenture study was based on a sample of 5,000 regular internet users in 12 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a quantitative assessment of the "maturity" of e-government services in 22 countries.
People who use the internet said they would conduct transactions with governments online if it would "saving time and money".
However, despite such interest in online government services, the study found that citizens rarely took advantage of them. The top reasons that the Internet users surveyed gave for rarely or never visiting government Web sites include difficulty finding the correct site (up to 26%), ease of conducting business by telephone (up to 20%) or in person (up to 34%), on-line privacy concerns (up to 18%) and Internet security issues (up to 17%).
“While there appears to be good understanding of the potential for e-government to save time and money, there is a considerable gap in citizen expectations that it can actually deliver on that promise,” said Stephen J. Rohleder of Accenture.
He said that this posed a challenge for those striving to become high-performance governments.
"They need to find innovative new ways to market their offerings, improve citizen awareness of the benefits, and increase take-up of online services,” he said.
(SP)
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