This was confirmed in the European Commission’s annual report on e-Government services provided by the member States.
The report recognises Malta’s continued “very marked improvement”. Malta “sits just behind Austria in second place in the country ranking for online sophistication (96 per cent), and for fully on-line availability (95 per cent)”.
These high scores put Malta in the position of being one of the best performing countries with regard to the benchmark indicators used in this survey. The main area for improvement consists in achieving fifth stage sophistication on some services. In fact, Malta has managed to record six out of nine relevant services reaching the fifth level of sophistication, establishing it as a pro-active leader in the further development of e-Government. From a user-centricity standpoint, Malta scores with 25 per cent above the EU27+ average of 19 per cent.
The report added, “The National Portal of Malta (www.gov.mt) provides access to all the surveyed services and has consistent branding. It provides personalised and targeted access based on user profiles. Malta was able to achieve a score of 98 per cent for its national portal. The EU27+ average is 75 per cent.”
The Commission recognised Malta as a “fast mover” notwithstanding the fact that Malta was already in a leadership position last year. The services provided by Malta’s government are also recognised for their sensitivity to the users’ needs and are deemed among the most “user-centric”, hence fulfilling most of the critical success factors for the effective delivery of e-Government.
Most notably the report holds that the progress since last year “demonstrates that Malta’s performance was no flash in the pan but the fruit of a consistent, focused and targeted customer centric programme that aims to provide the Maltese Public with one of the most sophisticated e-Government service available anywhere in Europe.”
At a press conference announcing these results and commenting upon them, Minister Austin Gatt announced that in the coming days he will be launching:
- A new on line environment for public services to improve on www.gov.mt that in any case scored 98 per cent in this year’s rankings;
- More sophisticated electronic identity infrastructure that will be able to issue digital certificates to users of sensitive public services such as fiscal, health or similar services;
- Four new electronic public services to be followed by another ten currently in development;
- A new ICT strategy to drive the national ICT program forward right up to the beginning of the next decade and that in the e-Government field will aim to ensure that all administrative services are provided on line in a personalised environment.
Quelle/Source: The Malta Independent Online, 23.09.2007
