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

A 100 city survey was conducted in Fall 2005, published in 2006, by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of the Graduate School of Governance, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management and the American Society for Public Administration. An index that ranks the digital governance of the cities was created based on this survey, and represents the only systematic effort to assess e-governance in municipalities throughout the world.

The E-Governance Performance Index evaluated Hong Kong, Macao, and the most populated cities in 98 countries in five areas: Security and Privacy, Usability, Content, Services, and Citizen Participation. Seoul, Korea, which came out at the top in four of the five categories, was the highest-ranked city overall, followed by New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Based on the research conducted, there appears to be a continued divide in digital governance throughout the world, especially between cities in developed and under-developed countries, with a growing gap between OECD and non-OECD countries.