e-Government in Singapore

Index of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Definition of e-Government
1.2 Overview

2. Singapore’s e-Government Action Plan
2.1 Government to Citizen (G2C)
2.2 Government to Business (G2B)
2.3 Government to Employees (G2E)

3. Infrastructure of e-Government
3.1 Services provided by PSi
3.1.1 Payment services
3.1.2 Authentication/security services
3.1.3 Common database services
3.2 Service-wider Infrastructure

4. Examples of e-Government
4.1 Example 1: eCitizen
4.2 Example 2: business.gov.sg
4.3 Example 3: Singpass – one password for e-Services

5. e-Government Action Plan II

6. Conclusion

Bibliographies

1. Introduction

Nowadays, not only can a Singapore citizen do his groceries shopping online without leaving the comfort of his four walls, he can also apply for a passport at the same time, pays his parking fine, renew his driving license, register for a primary school place for his children or even file his annual income tax. These are just some of the public services online available to the average citizen through e-Government.

1.1 Definition of e-Government

The term e-Government is synonymous for a modern, fast and efficient public service administration. It refers to the use of information technologies by the government bodies in providing services to the citizens, businesses and between other government organisations. Through the easy access of information through electronic means, citizens and businesses have better and easier access to information and improved interaction with the government. This in turn results in increased transparency, less corruption, greater convenience and lower administration cost.^[1]

1.2 Overview

The traditional interaction between a citizen and a government agency usually took place in a government office. With e-Government, such interactions can now take place online through the use of internet. Furthermore, e-Government also provides a mean for closer interactions between the governing bodies and its citizens, for example, through chat with policy makers or online discussion about certain policies. As with e-Commerce, e-Government aims to bring a friendlier, more convenient and time-saving interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and businesses (G2B), and also inter-agency relationships.

In this assignment, we will take a look at the e-Government Action Plan from Singapore that focuses on the development in these three areas:

- Government to Citizen (G2C)
- Government to Business (G2B)
- Government to Employee (G2E)

A short overview and description for each of the three core areas will be given. Thereafter we will look at the infrastructure needed to support the e-Government. A few examples from the current e-Government web portals and the e-services provided in Singapore will be shown and discussed. At the end, the second e-Government Action Plan II will be shortly described.

2. Singapore ’s e-Government Action Plan

The vision of the Singapore Government is to be a leading e-Government in serving the country and its citizens more efficiently in a knowledge-based economy.

The e-Government Action Plan was drew up in June 2000 to guide its e-Government efforts for three years till 2003. In order to achieve this goal, S$1.5 billion (ca. 0.75 billion Euro) were set aside to develop the various programs in the e-Government Action Plan. 4 strategic thrusts (revised as of 6th September 2000) were devised to support this vision:^[2]

1. Delivering integrated electronic services
2. Using infocomm technologies to build new capability and capacity
3. Being proactive and responsible
4. Reinventing government in the digital economy

With these strategies, citizens would be able to get access to more public services anytime, anywhere through internet technology. The public sector would continually innovate and adapt traditional operation processes by deploying infocomm technologies. New trends must be proactively anticipated. System and services must be delivered quickly and continuously fine-tuned to the needs of customers. A better understanding of the impact of infocomm technologies had to be cultivated and to harness the benefits of infocomm technologies continuously in its public services.^[3]

Besides the above-mentioned 4 strategic thrusts, 6 programmes were also prescribed in the action plan to move the three critical sectors - G2C, G2B and G2E, towards the e-Government vision. They are the knowledge-based workplace, electronic services delivery, technology experimentation, operational efficiency improvement, adaptive and robust infocomm infrastructure and infocomm education.^[4]

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Graphic. 1: 6 Programmes in the e-Government Strategic Framework

Source: Singapore-Government (2004), http://www.egov.gov.sg/PlansandStrategies/e-GovernmentPlans/e-GovernmentActionPlan/

A second e-Government Plan has now been put up to provide the e-Government roadmap till 2006. It aims to achieve the following outcomes: delighted customers, connected citizens and networked government.^[5]

2.1 Government to Citizen (G2C)

One of the main challenges in the area of e-services is in the delivery of quality services that the public values. Government agencies started to collaborate across agency boundaries in order to achieve the aim of providing a seamless online experience for the average citizen when interacting with the government.

Under G2C, individuals now have access to a wide range of online public services anywhere, anytime of the day. As of June 2002, about 77% of the public services that are considered suitable for electronic delivery were offered online. A one-stop web-portal “eCitizen”^[6] was set up in May 1999, providing a single access point to various government information and services. It was re-launched in November 2001 with seven new categories and new towns added, bringing it to a total of 15. The average traffic to this site reached 14.4 million per month as of June 2003.^[7] In year 2002, 1,600 e-services were available electronically. Of these, 1,300 were at the interactive and transaction level.^[8] That means, the eCitizen platform did not only provide static information but also interactive transaction functions for the people.

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^[1] cf. A definition of E*Government (2004), http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/egov/ (status 29.07.2004)

^[2] cf. The Singapore e-Government Action Plan (2004), http://egov.alentejodigital.pt/Singapura/The_Singapore_e-Government_Action_Plan.htm

^[3] cf. Fact sheets on Singapore’s e-Government Action Plan (2000), http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/marketing/infopage.jsp?infopagecategory=factsheet:aboutida&versionid=5&infopageid=I853 (status 29.07.2004).

^[4] cf. The e-Government strategic programmes (2003), http://www.egov.gov.sg/strategic_programmes.htm (status 29.07.2004)

^[5] cf. Overview: e-Government Action Plan II (2004), http://www.egov.gov.sg/egovt_action_planII.htm (status 29.07.2004)

^[6] cf. eCitzen (2004), http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg/index.htm (status 30.07.2004)

^[7] cf. Achievements of the first e-Government Action Plan in G2C (2004), http://www.egov.gov.sg/AwardsandAchievements/AchievementsinG2C/ (status 31.07.2004)

^[8] cf. G2C, ICA 36th Conference round table report Singapore (Oct 2002), p. 1