The biannual survey, a project jointly conducted by the Institute of e-governance at Sungkyunkwan University in Korea and Rutgers University in the United States, researched five aspects of each city's cabability for operating e-governance systems. They were graded in terms of security-privacy, usability, content, service and citizen participation. Seoul won four categories among the five.
"Seoul has succeed in implementing mobile services that have improved public services and held a series of online policy forums as innovative communication channels between the government and citizens, and government and business. That has definately reduced the time and cost required to interact with government, he added.
Seoul established its e-government in 2002 to help make metropolitan administration become cleaner, more transparent and more effective.
The city's e-governance system has played a role model in addressing transparency and accountability issues through innovative, technology-based solutions.
The survey examined 100 cities around the world for e-governance effectiveness from August to November last year. New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney were also listed as top five cities.
The survey was sponsored by the American Society for Public Administration and the Division for Public Economics and Public Administration under the U.N. Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
However, the study revealed substantial technological differences between developed and developing countries, highlighting the need of international organizations to transfer Information Technology in places where it is needed most.
Cities in South America, Africa, and East Asia were ranked lowdown on the survey.
Autor: Cho Chung-un
Quelle: The Korea Herald, 11.04.2006
