IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Government of Kazakhstan pays special attention to the development of e-Government. The state infrastructure of the e-Government was built in the country over a short period of time. The information resources and systems of the state bodies were integrated into a single complex. Presently, the number of certificates issued by the e-Government portal makes 10 million.

The World Bank has approved 55.1 million U.S. dollars to help Kenya scale up transformative Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications.

The Bank said on Monday that Kenya will use the funds to scale up digital inclusion, content development, and e-government and shared services.

Dubbed "Mobilising public services in Africa" the Informa Telecoms & Media's White Paper, available at the ongoing Africa Com event in Cape Town, ranks Kenya after South Africa and ahead of Egypt as an African country most ready to embrace mobile government services.

Joint authors of the Informa's report Nick Jotischky and Sheridan Nye however note that until now mobile government implementations have been far slower to take off in Southa Africa than in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

Globally, Korea emerged at the top of the rankings for the second year running ahead of the US and Canada.

In Africa, Mauritius and the Seychelles were the front-runners with Kenya in the third place.

“GCC states have upgraded their performance in the field of information technology which became one of their key national industries,” WEF pointed out in its report.

Saudi Arabia obtained 29th position globally in political and regulatory environment and 25th in business and innovation, according to the forum’s report data.

"The United Nations E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People" pointed to many major achievements made by the Saudi government in the past 2 years--from creating more options for mobile access to the high-functionality of the Saudi National portal. For all of these advancements, the Kingdom is now among top-performers in e-government as an "emerging eGovernment leader".

CAIT's Bashayer Al-Awwad told KUNA on sideline of a conference on human development that the event, sponsored by the agency, Kuwait's Civil Service Commission (CSC), and Microsoft, would focus on the role of IT in shaping skills of leaders and managers in government institutions.

The Ministry of Communications & IT reports that for the reported term the index increased from 4.89 up to 5.12.

Today there are 65 Internet users aged 15 to 74 years per every 100 people in the country. In the PSTN there are 17 phones per every 100 people and in the mobile network - 104 telephone numbers.

The index provides a quantitative appraisal of the use of e-government as a tool in the delivery of services to the public at large. It is a composite index based on website assessment, telecommunications infrastructure and human resources.

The report found Malta performs well in the fields of eCommerce, eBusiness and the provision of eGovernment services, and displays a relatively high proportion of eSkills among employees.

The strategy itself is called The Smart Island. Dr Gonzi said it is the fruit of the government’s work in the IT sector in the past six years as well as a broad consultation process. Some 85 percent of suggestions had been taken on board, he said. The previous strategy had 161 objectives, of which only 21 had not yet been attained. In terms of the new strategy, the government wanted to see IT in every aspect of life, with the country exploiting all the opportunities which IT offered and all the people benefiting from these gains.

On the other hand, countries in the Levant and North Africa still lag behind and face important challenges to fully leverage ICT. Jordan ranked (47), Tunisia (50), Egypt (79), Lebanon (95), Morocco (91), Algeria (118), and Syria (129).

Dr Al Kaabi told reporters that the UAE has taken an advanced position among the developed countries in the use of e-technology in completing formalities in the Ministry of Labour.

Among all states in Eastern Europe, Moldova has once again finished last in the latest UN rating of countries’ readiness for e-government, while nearby countries like Ukraine and Belarus improved their scores. According to the study, the Moldovans are the worst prepared country for the coming information society.

The benchmarking set out in the Global Information Technology Report is based on a proven framework, developed in 2002 and refined year-on-year, namely the Network Readiness Index. This Index is a composite of 10 pillars aggregating the results of 53 variables aimed at measuring the application and the impacts of ICT. This year’s assessment covered 142 economies: once again, the Nordic countries confirmed their status as advanced digital economies, with Sweden attaining excellent results in all pillars.

The World Summit on Information Society is a United Nations Conference led by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) –– a UN specialised agency. WSIS''s goal is to develop a global framework to deal with the challenges posed by the information society, said deputy director at NTA Min Prasad Aryal.

The country has to improve its performance in at least 10 indicators to meet the target given by World Summit on Information Society, said Aryal. The country should start the process of connecting villages to information and communication technology (ICT) and establish community access points, to connect universities, colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools with ICT and to also connect scientific and research centres with ICT by 2015, to meet the WSIS target, he added.

• 2013 edition of Ericsson's Networked City Index ranks Stockholm, London and Singapore as top three cities among 31 measured
• Key finding: Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-link to societal, economic and environmental development reconfirmed and strengthened as study now addresses more advanced technology
• Key finding: Leadership skills in utilizing ICT cross-functionally has high impact on ICT maturity and innovation capability

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) today published its latest Networked Society City Index. The index ranks 31 cities and measures their ICT maturity in terms of leverage from ICT investments on economic, social and environmental development; the "triple bottom line" effect.

The country popularly referred to as the giant of Africa has come under serious searchlight as its influence on the continent continues to dwindle despite having the largest population.

Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius and South Africa are now far ahead of Nigeria in the ICT Development Index. To prove that we are still far behind our peers, Lagos was ranked bottom of the largest cities in the world on the use of ICT to better the lives of its citizens in a research conducted by Arthur D. Little Institute and Ericsson.