IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

According to Nathan Midler, research manager of Internet and Government at the International Data Corporation (IDC) Asia Pacific, government IT spending in the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.1 per cent between 2002 and 2007.

With May’s major flooding in Ratnapura, a city in Sri Lanka, and its disastrous consequences still fresh in our minds, it reminds me of a similar occurrence, this time in the city of Buenos Aires . The cosmopolitan capital of Argentina, too, is not a stranger to floods as it is built on nine streams. In 2013, a disastrous flood and endless rain caused over 50 casualties and thousands of evacuations.

The above two scenarios are pretty similar. However, perhaps locally we should be looking to and learning from what has gone before. Following the weather event, the local Buenos Aires government proactively embarked on a project to leverage big data and gain insights into rainfall and water levels during stormy seasons, leveraging on Oracle’s business intelligence capabilities.

The role of technology, however, is often assessed by the overall enhancement in productivity and increase in national incomes. The potential role of technology in improving the lives of ordinary people — from reducing poverty, upgrading the delivery of public services to the enhancement of human development — is often hidden and unrecognised.

South Korea is most effective in e-governance in Asia while Laos the least effective, according to the recent survey by UN Data Center.

According to the UN report, the e-government survey measures e-government effectiveness in the delivery of public services and identifies patterns in e-government development and performance.

A symbolic launching ceremony was held at the Royal Chulan Hotel here where all the 10 Asean ministers or their representatives, were invited to place their right palms on a panel dubbed “the circle of solidarity” which have each country’s flag, witnessed by about 500 guests.

The ministers later received the AIM 2015, titled “We’re Stronger When We’re Connected” from Malaysian Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is urging Asean nations to work together to further develop the region’s fast-growing digital economy, which is expected to be worth more than US$360 billion (13.32 trillion baht) by the end of this year.

The prime minister made the call at the Asean Business and Investment Summit (Abis) 2022, which he attended via videoconference on Thursday.

Asia’s digital revolution shows no signs of slowing down. From e-commerce giants, like China’s Alibaba and Japan’s Rakuten, to ride-hailing and digital payment tech startups, like Indonesia’s Go-Jek and India’s Paytm, and the widespread use of industrial robots for manufacturing, digitization is changing the way the region’s businesses operate.

It is also transforming the way governments operate. Thanks to digitization, policymakers have greater access to timely and accurate data. With better information, governments can design and implement better policies, such as improving tax compliance and the efficiency of government spending.

"IT should be viewed as an enabler of public sector productivity, it makes it easier to automate processes and widen access to services," says V Mathivanan, Chief Executive Officer of CrimsonLogic. "However this has to be closely coupled with the willpower to improve the public administration, as well as the determination to streamline the processes, which is the very best hurdle to be overcome."

Asia’s city leaders are among the world’s most forward-thinking when it comes to smart cities. In fact, the Asia-Pacific region is set to account for 40% of the global smart city spending, or $800 billion by 2025 and 80% of all economic activities is expected to shift to cities in the years to come.

Rapid urbanization, demographic shifts, climate change and advancements in technology have all been drivers for disruption for a need for smarter cities. This transformation has been further accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed vulnerabilities, but also prompted cities to seek out new technologies to help them deal with COVID-related disruptions.

Korea and Japan racing ahead

Of the top 100 cities by average internet connection speed measured by Akamai, which serves around 20 per cent of the world’s web traffic, 61 cities are Japanese and 12 are Korean. Hong Kong also makes the list.

By contrast, only 12 US cities and 12 European cities feature in the table, published in Akamai’s Q1 2010 State of the Internet report.

Governments in the region are beginning to see tangible productivity gains from their mobile government applications. On one hand short message service (SMS) alerts are creating cheaper, faster, more responsive communication channels, and then on the other, handheld computers are extending the value of fixed enterprise systems beyond the walls of the office and out into the field. In both scenarios increasingly mobile services and employees are bringing government closer to citizens.

As more Asian governments realize the benefits of e-government, technology vendors recently admitted that they’re still having a hard time selling to public servants.