In order to gauge the capacity of Central European countries to achieve the ambitious e-government goals set for them by the EU, and to gauge their progress to date, the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Oracle, has conducted a wide-ranging analysis of the e-government experience in the Central Europe region. The rankings cover the ten new and candidate EU members from Central Europe, as well another prospective member, Turkey. The key conclusions include the following:
- There's no e-government without connectivity. Poor ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure in the home and workplace remains a serious impediment to e-government progress in the region. Sophisticated online public services count for little if people cannot access. Mobile services are well developed, but reliable broadband connections are limited and expanding only slowly.
- But vision and commitment count for something.
Infrastructure aside, several of the region's governments receive good marks for e-government vision and commitment, as well as efficient strategy development and implementation.
- The region's e-government leaders are Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Although held back by connectivity problems, these countries have gone well beyond e-government window dressing, and compare favourably in many areas with the rest of the EU, particularly in shifting public service delivery online.
- E-democracy is part of the compact with citizens.
E-democracy initiatives tend to take second priority to improving public services, but a few governments-notably that of Estonia-have scored significant gains in soliciting digital feedback from citizens.
- Beware the 'e-elite'. The combination of growing online service sophistication with poor infrastructure creates a unique socio-political risk for the region: that the influence of the infrastructure "haves", essentially the current political and business elite, expands and becomes entrenched, effectively widening the digital divide rather than narrowing it.
Lastly, smart government is not just digital government. Policymakers appear committed to delivering better public services via digital means. Given the infrastructure problems and countless other spending priorities, however, governments will be well-advised to focus digital initiatives on areas most in need of change. Traditional information and service delivery systems are likely to retain an important role in the foreseeable future.
Quelle: Metamorphosis, 15.10.2004
