PN MP urges government to sustain relevance of e-government services

Malta has once again been confirmed as a leading nation in the delivery of e-Government services in the European Union, the Nationalist Party said today.

In a report published by the European Commission, prepared in collaboration with global analysts Capgemini, RAND Europe, SOGETI and IDC, Malta has performed excellently in a rigorous benchmarking exercise clearly establishing it as the all-round best performer in e-Government in the EU27+.

The report pertains to the country's performance in 2012 and follows similar leading positions in the 2010 and 2011 benchmarking exercises.

"We are greatly satisfied with this outstanding result, which Malta has achieved in the face of growing economic challenges and increasingly competitive public administration innovation strategies and reform programmes across the EU," the PN said.

It also urged government to sustain the relevance of the e-Government programme and its crucial role in delivering public service reform and in realising efficiency gains and customer service improvements in the public sector, in its widest sense.

The PN said it embraced the key conclusions of the report that the digitisation of public services is rapidly accelerating and the pervasive application of ICTs in society and economy is now offering enormous potential to realise significant positive effects on public administration.

MP Claudio Grech, spokesperson for Planning and Simplification of Administrative Processes expressed great satisfaction at this result.  

"This exceptional result positions our country as an e-Government leader in the European Union, for the third consecutive year. Despite having limited resources and in a time of stringent public funding, we have managed to realise another piece of our digital dream," Grech said.

He added that the result proved that the PN administration's strategy and policy approach towards the modernisation of public services through the application of ICT has yielded excellent results for Malta's reputation in the digital world.  

"This is a result which we should cherish and use as a motivator to work harder for the years to come to sustain our leading position," Grech said.

He went on to thank the public officers who contributed towards this success: ""We should all be thankful for each individual public employee on the technical teams and all public service officials that have made this result possible."