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Monday, 21 July 2014 00:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The 2014 survey which was titled ‘E-Government for the Future We Want’ highlights global progress in online service delivery and focuses on citizen empowerment through e-participation. It also stresses the importance of reaching out to citizens through mobile, social media and inclusive multichannel service strategies.
In 2003, Sri Lanka was ranked at 84 in this survey and steadily dropped to rank 115 in 2012. However, Sri Lanka has climbed a remarkable 41 places since then and is now ranked number one among South Asian countries.
A “positive international report”
The Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Ranjith Siyambalapitiya called the survey a “positive international report” on Sri Lanka.
“The effective use of information technology by government organisations has played a vital role in this. In the past, it would take someone a few days to get a birth certificate. Now you can get it done within a few minutes,” he pointed out.
Using the issuing of revenue licenses as another example, the Minister stated that the situation had improved similarly with many Government services.
Information & Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) Chief Executive Officer Reshan Dewapura stated that Sri Lanka has a percentile ranking of 38.5% while it is 44 places higher than neighbouring India ranked at 118. Maldives is second in the South Asian region but is placed 20 places below Sri Lanka.
He said that implementing the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ national information technology development plan was one of the main contributors to these major improvements.
“Many of the projects implemented under this program have directly contributed to this great achievement. We consider this victory a vindication of our efforts,” he said.
Sri Lanka has also impressed in several sub-indices including e-services in which it is placed 36th and ranked number seven in internet services according to GDP. Sri Lanka is also 33rd in the world for e-participation and the best in this sub-index among the low middle income countries.
The UN survey uses the conceptual framework of the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) which is a composite measure of three dimensions of e-government, namely: provision of online services, telecommunication connectivity and human capacity.
According to the survey report, the global e-government ranking, as derived from the EGDI, is not designed to capture e-government development in an absolute sense but to provide a performance rating of national governments relative to one another.
Twenty-five countries have been identified as having “very high EGDI” with the Republic of Korea retaining its top spot from 2012. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been identified as a high EGDI country along with the likes of China, Malaysia, Qatar and Russia.
Government efforts commended
The report states that the Sri Lankan Government had made substantial efforts to develop its online portal which offers A-Z Government web indices, 108 e-services for citizens, 51 e-services for businesses and 10 non-residence related e-services.
The report also highlights Sri Lanka’s m-government services. It states that the country’s e-government policies have been geared to include all segments of the public, offering services to everyone regardless of their IT literacy levels or access to the internet.
Re-engineering Government Program Director of ICTA Wasantha Deshapriya also spoke at the event, pointing out that Sri Lanka had fallen to 115th place in 2012 after holding rank 84 in 2003.
“We have been proactive in improving the conditions in Sri Lanka. Around 150 online government services were introduced with tri-lingual services, Government mobile applications and open data portals being amongst the developments,” he said.
Deshapriya also highlighted the fact that around 80% of the population in Sri Lanka still had no access to online services. He proposed that the provision of public service through internet and mobile phones should be extended more widely while a systematic program would be prepared in the near future under the Smart Sri Lanka initiative.
He added that Sri Lanka’s next target would be to come within the top 50 countries in the world for the best use of information technology for providing public services.
The United Nations E-Government Survey is published by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs through its Division for Public Administration and Development Management.
