Is Your Government E-Ready?

The idea of e-government has been heavily promoted in recent years as a means of increasing efficiency, improving the provision of public services, getting better regulations in place, and, most importantly, ensuring transparency in the use of public funds and reducing opportunities for corruption.

As the concept of e-government is tied to the willingness of public officials to become more transparent and good policies as much as it is tied to the availability of technology, one would think that it remains a wishful thinking for many emerging markets, especially on the local level.  However, according to the recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the gap (still significant) between “haves” and “have nots” continues to shrink. 

Chile and Romania have seen significant progress in instituting e-government mechanisms, while the situation in Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia worsened when compared to other countries.  Interestingly, the costs of technology may not be the real issue here – the price of connecting to the Internet does not differ much between developed and developing countries:

In estimating broadband affordability for the first time, we also found that there is not, on the whole, a massive gap between developed and developing markets. The lowest speed of digital subscriber line (DSL) service available in west European and North American markets costs households 1% or less of median monthly income. In many individual markets in Latin America, central and eastern Europe, and developing Asia, similar services demand the same or a slightly higher share of household budgets. Broadband is increasingly affordable in the developing world.

What is it then?  The report evaluates countries in several categories, including the quality of the business climate, the legal environment, governments’ commitment to reform, and the availability of technology.  How did your country do?  You can find out here.

Published Date: June 06, 2007