With rising use of mobile devices, citizens are increasingly in the habit of connecting to the internet to carry out day-to-day tasks for convenience and time saving. Factors contributing to the growth of e-government include not only mobile services but also cloud computing, citizen awareness and green e-government.
Cloud computing will continue to play a role in e-government, along with integrated mobile services. One challenge to the sector is cybercrime, which continues to rise in tandem with internet use. Internet governance will play an important role moving forward as governments seek to implement international systems concerning technical governance and management. Demand for e-services is rising in established markets but is also expected to rise in developing markets like Africa due to increasing broadband penetration.
Challenges
Communication and information management are made difficult by factors such as customer diversity, transparency requirements and policy ambiguity. Differing end goals and working methods makes the public sector rife with cross-purposes and discord. Harmonizing protocol, ways of working and overall goals represents a vital aspect of making e-government effective and efficient.
Finding ways to encourage collaboration and information sharing between actors in the public sector represents a significant challenge for e-government. Cross-agency initiatives will have to be deployed to combat obstacles to cohesive, cooperative initiatives.
Regional Developments
The Australian government provides advanced e-government services, which may be improved by the setting up of a fiber-based broadband network, reports Budde Comms. The Australian government pledged a National Health Medicare rebate plan for online and other services in which State investment could exceed $390 million. E-health services were built for more than 15,000 General Practitioners through collaboration between the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and telecommunications company Telstra. These services are forecast to cut healthcare costs by 10%-20%.
Spain’s e-services are currently under development. The country’s information society strategy, called Plan Avanza, has been able to activate under $10 billion over a four-year period from stakeholders at national, non-national and non-governmental levels, reports the OECD.
Spain’s case has shown that implementing a solid framework for policy and governance is vital for effective information society strategy, from which e-government services can be successfully deployed. To build such frameworks, it is important to encourage collaboration between stakeholders and influencing established institutions, bolstering funding structures, boosting assessment and harmonizing strategic aims and policy sequencing contributes.
Market Outlook
E-government is not limited to web-based growth but also includes mobile applications, notes Budde Comm. This is not just government-led but increasingly driven by application developers and lay people, for example through app competitions encouraging the public to provide their ideas for apps to ameliorate e-government services. Cost and time consumed by administrative tasks are both being reduced thanks to the implementation of cloud computing.
Mobile apps are being deployed for educational purposes across many sectors, especially healthcare bodies and academic institutions. Educational mobile technology is being well received via widespread use e-readers and other mobile devices.
Governments worldwide are investing in smart city development. Smart cities involve sustainable economic development through participatory governance, and traditional and modern communication infrastructures. Knowledge communication and social capital are key factors to boosting urban performance.
Governments are increasingly aware of the advantages of smart governance and are expected to enlist information and communication technologies to help encourage citizen participation with the overall goal of streamlining governance frameworks.
E-Government Websites
