According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on the e-government, big steps, including $2.5 million in public investment for social security, have been taken towards the prevention of fraud, resulting in $1 billion in annual savings and increasing efficacy, resulting in another $3 billion in annual savings.
The unit cost of tax collection has dropped from $2 to $0.35 since many banks have begun collecting income taxes instead of tax departments.
Stronger efforts are needed to eliminate that gap, the OECD reported. The Telecommunications Association has to continue encouraging competition within the telecommunications sector in order to obtain faster and cheaper Internet access.
The OECD report also suggested that the government increase the number of Internet cafés that provide education and guidance for citizens.
Taking advantage of open universities:
There is considerable effort in Turkey to raise computer literate students in elementary and middle schools. Now the government has to direct its attention to educate citizens who are not in school, stated in the report. Turkey has been asked to use its Open University experience to spread computer literacy.
Turkey's overland telephone network reaches 15 million families, while the Internet is only used in 8.7 percent of those homes. This is because Internet access is expensive.
The report stressed that Turkey so far has focused more on providing better and faster Internet services to the business world than for home users.
Meanwhile, the rate of online services, or e-government, provided to the business world in Turkey is close to the EU-28 countries average (Norway, Iceland and Switzerland included), while it is higher than the EU-10 countries average.
The report shows that as of July 2006, the public sector owns 10,677 Web sites, 3,812 of which belong to public bodies.
Quelle/Source: Turkish Daily News, 07.12.2006
