From E-Government to Good Governance and from Good Governance to Development... The Arab world in the global E-Government readiness report 2005 Arab E-government

Can E-Government Boost Private Investment in Developing Economies?

Countries are increasingly turning to e-government — the use of information technologies (IT) such as wide area networks and the Internet — to improve the delivery of information and basic services to citizens and businesses. They are realizing that e-government can lower business costs and stimulate private investment.

Some of the areas in which governments are applying information technology:

• business registration and license application,
• inspection clearance,
• customs modernization,
• tax administration, (e.g. electronic filing), and
• procurement of goods and services.

E-government has led to significant savings in terms of the time and cost required to conduct daily transactions. By introducing transparency and accountability, it has also increased trust in government. For civil servants, however, e-government offers a mixed bag: changes in management and leadership and retraining requirements.

Although e-government has been around since the 1990s, many developing countries have not fully reaped its benefits because they lack the key conditions for it to thrive: healthy political and regulatory environments, well-developed IT infrastructure, and a large pool of Internet users. Skeptics believe that e-government is not an appropriate tool for low-income countries with limited technical capability. But some developing countries, such as Guatemala, have successfully implemented e-government in certain areas, despite this shortcoming.

Discussion Questions

What obstacles do developing countries face in establishing e-government to facilitate business activity? Are there certain minimum technical or institutional requirements without which e-government is not feasible? Are there countries with relatively low technological development that have nevertheless successfully implemented e-government and witnessed an increase in investment? What new challenges do countries face once they do establish e-government practices? How can these be resolved?

posted by Unknown @ 8:14 AM