Theme 1Theme 1Emergence of e-GovernmentEmergence of e-Government

Presented by Prof. Jin-Wan Seo, Ph.D.Former Member of the Presidential e-Government

CommitteeMember of Steering Committee, Asia-Pacific e-Government

Advisory BoardUniversity of Incheon

South Korea

1. Why should we discuss e-Government?

• A discussion on e-Government comes from the perception that governments will inevitably reply to new environmental changes in the 21st century based on social informatization.

•The change of government in the emergence of an information-oriented society•Paradigm changes of national government

1) The change of government in the emergence of an information-oriented society

The emergence of an information-oriented society has brought about changes throughout all sectors of society, affecting the administration, an important sub-system in society.

Governments that take the initiative in national management and social development are capable of leading informatization attempts, and in turn this informatization enables proactive inducement of administrative changes and a solid foundation for growth.

Viewed from this perspective, the administration is empowered to positively realize the value of pursuing information rather than simply rationalizing the influence of informatization in the administration. Therefore, the attainment of informatization can be regarded as a prerequisite to administrative change.

2) Paradigm changes of national government

In line with the needs of the 21st century’s information-oriented society, each nation around the world exerts effort to enhance administration productivity and service quality as well as invests immense capital to create national information and communications infrastructures.

Information-oriented Society

Administration • Productivity• Service Quality

To create national information & Communication infrastructures

Investment

From the perspective that information technology itself is a critical enabler and instrument for administrative change, what has been understood so far in simple technical dimensions has taken the direction of what administrative changes should be undertaken to embody informatization.

At present, as the development of information networking enables communications that unimpeded by the constraints and limitations of time, space and recognition, fundamental change is required in the traditional administrative functions and administrative work processes.

Through e-Government services, governments can flexibly serve administrative demands which have become increasingly diverse and particular, and efficiently operate its financial resources by cutting transaction costs.

Debates concerning e-Government have become important in relation to the need for such informatization.

3) Historical background of e-Government

The advent of electronic government (e-Government) can be understood as grafting the introduction of information technology onto the activities of government renovation, which is based on the current era of digitalization, as well as international and domestic administrative environment changes, with advanced countries at the forefront.

As management techniques are emphasized in the public sector and various applied information communications technologies have enlarged the necessity for conducting administrative work, the relationship between administration and information technology has naturally become the target direction.

Accordingly, in a bid to meet the requirements for efficient administrative management, rational policy decisions, and highly qualified administrative services have created an administrative paradigm shift in which electronic governance is developed.

___________AdministrationManagement

___________ Policy Decision

AdministrativeServices

AdministrativeEnvironment

AdministrativePresent

The existingAdministration Changes Plan

4) Necessity of e-Government

As the inevitable strategy to increase globalization measures, each nation’s government exerts diverse effort to take the initiative in national informatization. Recently, every nation has focused on a national strategy for informatization, and has promoted and developed policies for various informatization tasks.

e-Government, deemed necessary for this knowledge information society is to develop and build a system that provides more efficient administrative management and high quality administrative services for utilization of information technology.

The nations of the world acknowledge its necessity and are implementing concrete measures to put it into practice.

Case: Main Theme of Reinventing Government

1. ___________ Government: Steering Rather Than Rowing 2. ___________ Government: Empowering Rather Than Serving 3. ___________ Government: Injecting Competition into Service Delivery 4. ___________ Government: Transforming Rule-Driven Organizations 5. ___________ Government: Funding Outcomes, Not Inputs 6. ___________ Government: Meeting the Needs of the Customer, Not the Bureaucracy 7. ___________ Government: Earning Rather Than Spending 8. ___________ Government: Prevention Rather Than Cure 9. ___________ Government: From Hierarchy to Participation and Teamwork 10. ___________ Government: Leveraging Change Through the Market

2. Background of Discussion

Case: Summary of Main Theme

Public Administration

Governance & New Public

Management

Government Role Rowing ___________

Principles/Mechanism

Administration ___________

Managerial Target Supply-Oriented ___________

Managerial Means Rule-Driven ___________

Budget Input-Based ___________

Service Delivery Monopolized System ___________

Organizational Structure

Centralized Hierarchy ___________

2. Why is e-Government Important?

1) e-Government improves efficiency

ICTs help improve efficiency in mass processing tasks and public administration operations. Internet-based applications can generate savings on data collection and transmission, provision of information and communication with customers. Significant future efficiencies are likely through greater sharing of data within and between governments.

2) e-Government improves services

Adopting a customer focus is a core element of major countries’ reform agendas. Successful services (both online and off-line) are built on an understanding of user requirements. A customer focus implies that a user should not have to understand complex government structures and relationship in order to interact with government. The Internet can help achieve this goal by enabling governments to appear as a unified organization and provide seamless online service. As with all services, e-government services must be developed in light of demand and user value, as part of an overall multi-channel service strategy

2. Background of Discussion

3) e-Government helps achieve specific policy outcomes

The Internet can help stakeholders share information and ideas and thus contribute to specific policy outcomes.

For example, online information can boost use of an educational or training program, information sharing in the health sector can improve resource use and patient care, and information sharing between central and sub-national governments can facilitate environmental policies.

The sharing of information on individual, however, will raise privacy protection issues, and the potential trade-offs need to be carefully assessed. Timeframes for initiatives need to be realistic, as there can be considerable lags before benefits accrue.

2. Background of Discussion

4) … and can contribute to economic policy objectives

E-Government helps reduce corruption, increases openness and trust in government, and thus contributes to economic policy objectives. Specific impacts include reduced government spending through more effective programs, and efficiencies and improvements in business productivity through ICT-enabled administrative simplification and enhanced government information.

Given the reach and influence of government, e-government initiatives promote information society and e-commerce objectives. Government consumption of ICT products and services can also support local ICT industries. However, impacts in these areas are difficult to quantify.

5) E-government can be a major contributor to reform

All major countries are facing the issue of public management modernization and reform. Current developments – globalization, new fiscal demands, changing societies and increasing customer expectations – mean that the reform process must be continuous. ICTs have underpinned reforms in many areas, for example by improving transparency, facilitating information-sharing and highlighting internal inconsistencies.

6) E-government can help build trust between governments and citizens

Building trust between governments and citizens is fundamental to good governance. ICT can help build trust by enabling citizen engagement in the policy process, promoting open and accountable government and helping to prevent corruption. Furthermore, if limits and challenges are properly overcome, e-government can help an individual‘s voice to be heard in a broad debate.

This is done by harnessing ICT to encourage citizens to think constructively about public issues and assessing the impact of applying technology to open up the policy process. However, few expect e-government arrangements to replace completely traditional methods of information provision, consultation and public participation in the near future.

3. Definition and Meanings

1) Definition

Though electronic government can be diversely expressed as e-Government, digital government, online government and cyber government, they are all used as a similar concept. Since it was mentioned in the United States in 1993, the concept of e-Government has gradually materialized into a relationship between information technology and administration concretely.

In other words, the term ‘electronic’ in e-Government represents the technical perspective of digital technology, and the term ‘government’ can be viewed as the socio-technical system representing the social aspect of government work.

The terminology originally stemmed from the concept of electronic banking service, in which a bank developed more convenient services for its customers, and then up to now it has changed into the concept of e-Government which we now understand from the point of view that government should provide more convenient services to its customers-- its people.

Bank→ Electronic Banking

Government→ ___________

2) Meanings

From the technical point of view, e-Government executes most administrative tasks through the use of online information technology. Therefore, e-Government uses an information communications infrastructure as a basis for more convenient and prompt communications between people and the government, and provides all kinds of administrative services via networks anywhere and anytime.

Especially, the renovation of online information technology, which has bi-directional features, has computer networks equipped for information exchange and processing functions as well as the provision of unilateral information.

Generally speaking, while we can define the concept of e-Government based on a technical basis, it incorporates diversified definitions through internal and external segmentation of the organization.

It is important to efficiently execute administrative management, and effectively utilize information resources generated by that efficient management in conjunction with the decision-making process.

Such internal conditions of government organization are required as part of the enhancement of administrative efficiency and productivity, and if it turns out to be satisfactory, prompt and high quality administration services will be offered to meet people’s various administrative demands, ultimately leading to a contribution in the improvement of living quality.

Therefore, the realization of e-Government can be understood as the government enabling such steps to be compositely actualized.