The Ministry has already begun work developing central e-government standards through its website - www.ecitizen.go.th. The Ministry wants to make the government fully electronic over the space of the next three years - but faces an uphill struggle as the majority of government websites merely offered bare information, and did not allow for customised interaction.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Minister Dr Surapong Suebwonglee urged government chief information officers to accelerate electronic government projects.
Addressing CIO's from state agencies during a seminar on the development of e-government, Dr Surapong observed with regret that while Brown University in the US had ranked Singapore second in the world for its e-government work, Thailand had failed to make the top echelons of the list.
Thailand was recently ranked 42nd out of 198 countries by an e-government survey from Brown University, placing it behind neighbouring ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
However, in the 14 months since the launch of Thailand's e-government promotion, a number of ministries and departments, most notably the Revenue Department, have successfully managed to add to the country's good reputation through the services offered by their websites.
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 11.06.2004
