IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Taiwan trailed South Korea but led the other 96 countries in the study, which was conducted during June and July. A total of 1,667 government Web sites were analyzed based on many criteria, including the contents of central government Web sites, disability access, the presence of privacy policies, security policies, contact information, foreign-language options, advertisement and user fees, and the number of online services.

According to a survey of 1,935 government Web sites in 198 countries conducted by the Center for Public Policy at Brown University in the summer, Taiwan ranked No. 1 for its e-government performance and on-line services.

More Digital Transformation of European public services needed to drive the EU Digital Single Market

European public authorities are advancing in bringing services online to the benefit of citizens and companies.

Progress, however, is slow and divided. This is one of the main findings of the 12th Benchmark Measurement of European eGovernment Services, released by the European Commission today, and carried out by the Capgemini Group, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology, and outsourcing services, and its partners. Personalisation and shifting the focus from the national level to the European level, are a key next step for European countries when it comes to delivering public services and unlocking the full potential of a Digital Single Market in the near future.

The Government Administration and Home Affairs Ministry said Sunday (Jan. 6) that the country ranked sixth last year in the U.N. Global E-government Readiness Index among 192 nations and second in the world body’s e-participation index among 189 nations.

The readiness index is a composite indicator comprising indices on measures for the Web, telecommunication infrastructure and human capital.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has released its report on broadband availability among its member nations -- and though the United States is the largest broadband market in the OECD with nearly 70 million subscribers, it is still ranked 15th among the member nations for overall nationwide broadband penetration.

The United States' mixed record of nationwide broadband availability was one highlight of a sweeping examination of trends in broadband penetration and recommendations for the future.

Few developments have had broader consequences for the public sector than the introduction of the Internet and digital technology. Electronic government offers the promise of utilizing technology to improve public sector performance as well as employing new advances for democracy itself. In its boldest formulation, technology is seen as a tool for long-term system transformation. Despite the great promise of technological advancement, though, public sector innovation has tended to be small-scale and gradual.

The Global Information Technology Report 2007 – 2008, released by the World Economic Forum based on the estimates of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – showed that the UAE ranked first on: internet users rate, international internet bandwidth rate, the importance of ICT to government vision of the future, personal computers rate, ICT use and government efficiency; e-government readiness index, government prioritisation of ICT, laws relating to ICT, and the number of telephone lines.

The UAE has missed the number one spot in the Middle East this year because the UN surveyed the federal portal, which Salem Khamis Al Shair, Director-General of the UAE General Information Authority (GIA) said has been “lagging behind”.

Strong support and priority by the government to the information and communication technology (ICT) sector raised the UAE's ranking among the world's most networked economies globally by four positions to 23rd place in a latest study.

According to the World Economic Forum's latest The Global Information Technology Report 2009-10, the UAE's impressive performance in recent years has been driven by a strong and consistent government focus on ICT – second and 29th for government readiness and usage, respectively — as a key factor for its vision for the future.

The United Arab Emirates has climbed 21 places to stand at 28th rank in the 2012 United Nations e-Government survey of more than 190 countries. It had stood at 49th rank in 2010.

The UAE leads the rest of the Arab World with Bahrain following in at 36th place. The top ranked country was South Korea, followed by Holland, Denmark, USA and France. The last at 190th was Somalia.

Three Arab countries — the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain — are ranked among the top 30 countries for harnessing information communication and technology (ICT) to transform society, according to a new report.

The UAE ranked 24th out of 138 countries, Qatar placed 25th while Bahrain was 30th in the 2010-11 Global Information Technology Report Transformations 2.0.

Globally, the top five were Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Switzerland and the US. The report is released annually by the Insead international business school and the World Economic Forum.

The rating is the highest in the GCC and represents a major improvement since the last survey in 2005 – then the country was in the 42nd place.

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa stood out among the emerging economies covered in the report, with all but one ranked in the top half of the 134 countries listed in the report’s networked readiness index. Most have improved their rankings consistently since the first report was released in 2001.

The UAE has recorded the highest increase in rank, shooting up 12 places to 33rd in the IDI 2012.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) launches the 5th edition of its report – Measuring the Information Society (MIS). The report, which has been published annually since 2009, features key ICT data and benchmarking tools to measure the information society, including the 2012 ICT Development Index (IDI) which captures the level of ICT developments in 157 economies worldwide and compares progress made during the last year.

The survey also placed the UAE 32nd among 192 UN Member States in the 2008 eGovernment Readiness Index, while the country achieved the 12th position in the web measurement index, which rated the online presence of national websites and selected ministries, including health, education, welfare, labour and finance. The UAE also has the highest web measure index in the region, which reaffirms the country's commitment to setting the highest standards of eGovernance excellence.

The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by the World Economic Forum and Insead Business School, has this year ranked the UAE in 27th place, up two places from last year's 29th place.