E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies.

In those days, when you or your parents want to pay bills, pay income taxes, apply for something from the government, you will say it is troublesome. Why will you say so? You need to queue, purchase the form, waited for some time, in terms of hours or days or months to get things done. But today, things have changed. We do not need to travel and waste our time and energy for doing these tasks anymore. Thanks to E-Government that has been implemented since the late 1990s.

Electronic government or e-government is referred to the use of information and communication technologies that provides and improves government services, transactions and interactions with citizens, businesses and other arms of the government. It is implemented since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the government of Malaysia. E-government is one of the flagship applications from the MSC project. The objectives are to jump start and accelerate the growth of MSC, enhance national competitiveness to creation of high value jobs and export growth, to help reduce digital divide and to make MSC a regional hub and bed. The implementation of e-government services would bring benefits to public administration and the Malaysian community.

These are the e-government main projects:
1. Generic Office Environment (GOE) - The objective is to introduce a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia technology.
2. Electronic Procurement (ep) - The aims is to re-engineer, automate, and transform current procurement system.
3. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) - It provides a single interface for government employees to perform human resource function effectively and efficiently.
4. Project Monitoring System (PMS) - It is designed to provide a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of government project.
5. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX) - It improves the mobilization of human resources.
6. E-syariah – It is implemented to focus the improvment of quality or services in syariah courts.
7. Electronic Services Delivery (e Services) – It allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in transactions with government and utilities payments such as telephone and electricity bills.

The current applications of e-government in Malaysia are
-E-Filling
-Renew Driving License online
-E-Judiciary
-E-Perolehan.
-E-Dafter

However, there are some barriers which could affect Malaysia’s government to implement these policies. First are Legislative and Regulatory Barriers. In order for e-government services to gain widespread acceptance, there must have the same standing as the equivalent paper processes and ensuring the privacy and security before advancing the online e-government services. So, it faces confusion over what exactly should be enplaced for good governance of the e-government services.

Besides this, there will also be budgetary framework problem because some government departments does not recognize ICT expenditure as a potential future investment. It is an important issue that government must realize the potential benefits of adopting e-government services to finance government services and shared infrastructure. The budgetary regulations should facilitate coordinated bids for new funds and the pooling of funds. Furthermore, technology changes also are one of the problems. Since technology moves rapidly, it is very difficult to anticipate the future impact in details.

The e-government citizen’s adoption strategies can be increased on its awareness through TV and radio advertisements and organizing workshops at shopping mails. On the other hand, citizens should be encouraged to show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. If the citizens felt unsatisfied with the services, they can give any suggestions and comments to the e-government websites. Moreover, providing the website with multiple language versions is also a helpful tool for implementing e-Government. For example, if some users lack of English language abilities, they can choose alternative languages like Chinese or Malay language to use the e-government services. Besides this, e-government also provides consultation services on how to use these services and the procedures needed to access the e-government services.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government
http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
http://publications.ksu.edu.sa/Conferences/eGovernment%20Conference/E19.pdf
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Government