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

E-government (also known as electronic government) is a diffused neologism used to refer to the use of information and communication technology to provide and improve government services, transactions and interactions with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

Many countries are implementing e-government including Malaysia. The implementation of e-government started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysia Government in 1996. It has improved both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. In addition, it seek to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses, at the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

“Roadmap for a tech enabled government” is one of the visions of Malaysia Vision 2020. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

There are 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application:

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELCX)
7. E-Syariah

Government-to-Citizens

The Government-to-Citizen (G2C) relationship refers to services provides to fulfill citizens’ needs. Citizens seek more reliable and accessible services from the public sector. This implies that citizens should be able to carry out variety of tasks that involves multiple agencies, from a single access point. Increased interactions between government and citizens encourage citizens to become more participative thus allowing the government to respond to their needs more effectively. This category of relationship desires electronic services and infrastructure.

The myGovernment portal (http://www.malaysia.gov.my) acts as one-stop source of Malaysian government information and services for the citizens. Below are some online access services provided by government to citizens:

• Electronic driver’s license issuance and renewal
• Integrated passport and visa processing
• Electronic tax payment and processing
• Smart traffic fine payment
• Electronic road tax and vehicle registration
• Electronic EPF/SOCSO management
• Easy employment licensing/permitting
• Electronic IC renewal
• Electronic quit rent processing and payment
• Smart commercial vehicle licensing/permitting
• Electronic pension processing
• Integrated low cost housing management
• On-line consumer information
• On-line health information
• Electronic public complains information
• Electronic school/higher education registration
• Electronic polling/survey

There are some recent surveys about e-government adoption in Malaysia, stated that the usage of e-government service is growing but at a small pace. In 2003, only 15% of Malaysian has used the Internet to access online government services compared to 12% in year 2002. In addition, there are some challenges faced by government in adoption of e-government services. The main challenge in e-government in Malaysia is the technological change, which includes issues such as standards, data integration, legacy maintenance and privacy and security. The key priority is to improve the core government applications and integrating more services across agencies. Simultaneously, market the e-government services to the public and businesses.

Related Links:

e-government

e-government in Malaysia

electronic Government in Malaysia

Implementation of electronic government in Malaysia: the status and potential for better services to the publicMalaysian