That's according to an annual report from Cap, Gemini, Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) for the European Commission Information Society Directorate-General, which placed Ireland second in Europe in terms of on-line public service sophistication, with a score 86 percent. That placement ties with Denmark and is 1 point behind the leader, Sweden. Last year Ireland had an 85 percent score and in October 2001 its score was 68 percent, topping the list. Though the Republic still ranks quite high in comparison to competitor nations, many countries that once trailed Ireland by a wide margin have made impressive gains over the past year. Austria, for example, ranked fourth in terms of e-government sophistication in the most recent survey, with a score of 83 percent, compared to 56 percent a year earlier. Likewise, Finland and Norway had scores of 76 percent and 66 percent respectively in 2002, but rose to 80 percent and 75 percent in the October 2003 survey.
Meanwhile, another section of the report which tracks "complete electronic case handling" -- a measure of whether a public service can be handled entirely on-line without traditional paperwork -- placed Ireland fifth, with a score of 56 percent, compared to 50 percent last year. Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Finland topped this list, all posting gains of 11 percentage points or more, save for Sweden, which posted no gain. For its part, Austria had the most impressive growth, climbing from 20 percent in 2002 to 68 percent in 2003.
Ireland's slowed growth is reflective of what has happened throughout Europe, the report indicated. Over all, Europe's level of on-line sophistication grew 7 points in the year to October 2003 to 67 percent. In the previous year growth leapt 15 percent.
Nonetheless, some progress was made, with Europe scoring 45 percent in the 'complete electronic case handling' metrics. Importantly, in 2002 only Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Finland showed progress towards two-way interaction, but now almost all the countries measured have improved the average level of on-line sophistication of their public services beyond one-way interaction, CGE&Y said.
Interestingly, the report also revealed that services for business tend to be in a more advanced state than citizen-centric services, with sophistication scores for the two categories hitting 79 percent and 58 percent, respectively. On-line availability scores were 63 percent for business-focused public services, and a meagre 32 percent for citizen-focused services.
"Clearly, Europe's nation states continue to make good progress in e-government," commented Stan Cozon, CGE&Y's public sector global leader. "However, taking the measure of Europe's progress on services fully available on-line, the picture is rather pessimistic. The EC will want to encourage member states to enhance the number of public services fully available on-line, particularly those aimed at citizens."
The report, which covered 15 EU member countries plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, broke government services into four main categories: Income-generating: services such as taxes and social contributions; Registration services such as births, deaths or marriages; Returns, or services provided in return for taxes such as public libraries; and permits & licences, for activities like home construction or business registration.
Quelle: Electric News.net, 27.01.2004
