ICEGOV Ministerial plenary sitting - International perspective
We have gathered here today, to the panel, to discuss e-government issues from the international perspective.
Countries in the world are different, but often there are also a lot of similarities. Each country has to develop e-government by its own; nobody else from the outside can complete this task fully.
As I could notice from the statements from my colleagues, motivations behind the use of IT in government can be very different. In some cases the wish is to build up governance structures and do it in a modern way, in some cases the focus is on social aspects and sometimes the aim is to cut costs in the public sector.
Looking at the international perspectives of e-government development I want to point out some key aspects:
-Firstly. We have to clearly understand what the goal is. I think that e-government is a great opportunity when countries are transforming their governance. “e-“ gives possibility to get quick results, especially in areas like increasing transparency, tackling corruption, serving citizens in a better way and rising effectiveness and efficiency of governance. If countries are sharing same goals, there are lots of possibilities for cooperation. If goals and motivation are unclear or differ a lot – the possibilities for cooperation are limited.
It is misleading to talk about e-government initiatives. If we handle e-government initiatives separately from “normal”-government initiatives we will fail from the very beginning. I think “e-“ is a natural aspect of any government initiative nowadays.
The main factors behind e-government success lie in the commitment of high level political leadership. E-government development is an integral and horizontal part of the overall government development, it must serve the objectives of top political leadership and this task cannot be delegated to some small corner of public administration.
-Secondly. The success of the e-government greatly depends on the environment. Is the existing infrastructure sufficient? The precondition of the e-government is that it must reach the people. How is it with legislation? Legal environment has to support real e-government; otherwise we will see just fancy technological experiments. And most important – how is it with people? Are they ready to use e-government, motivated and equipped with the skills needed? All these related questions are often more difficult to handle than just the creation of actual e-government services. There are a lot of opportunities for sharing best practices and cooperation also in those areas directly related to e-government.
-Thirdly. The global tendency is movement towards a unified world. People move between countries. Economies are more and more dependent on each other. We witness cross-border flow of capital, goods, services and information everywhere. In some way it is natural, that e-government solutions are becoming more similar – the objects and subjects of e-government are to a great extent also same. Land, people’s health, counting and processing public money, education – those issues are present in all countries in the world. Global economy requires that the governance structures of different countries also adapt to the common playground.
At the same time, it’s obvious that the governance of different countries will never be absolutely similar. So it seems a better idea to talk about interoperable governance and governments than about unified governance. The future belongs to governments able to utilize what technology offers, arrange things relying on best practices, not losing its own face, but still well adapting to global realities and commonly shared values.
Finally, I want to touch the question whether or not „e“ can be exported/imported. Knowledge transfer is definitely possible and natural. There is no need to invent their own bicycles for everyone. Countries in the world are different, with their own legal systems, traditions and government structures. But at the same time there are lot of common values that we share, there are similarities in governance and some processes are often comparable. Some basic cornerstones of e-government depend very little on local environment. For example in Estonia the concept of X-road, used to connect different infosystems and the electronic identity management based on ID-cards and mobile –IDs. Those kind of basic elements are useful enablers when whatever e-services based on specific laws or circumstances are developed.
In short:
- Knowledge transfer is essential;
- Good models from the world should be taken into account;
- Elements of e-Government can be imported;
- Overall responsibility still relies on local decision makers.
