Malta tops EU charts on e-governance

The European Commission (EC) has released a summary featuring measurements of public sector performance in the deployment of e-Government in 32 countries (the 27 European Union member states together with Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey– EU27+). 

Maltais the only country amongst the EU27+ which managed to score 100 per cent in five of these six core indicators, followed by Ireland which managed to score 100 per cent in three indicators.

In a statement by the Infrastructure, Transport and Communications Minister Austin Gatt said that such results once again attest to Malta’s vision and strategy in the realisation of e-Government. “We have always believed in the ability of the Internet to act as a tool to transform public service delivery. We have constantly worked not to merely place services online but to ensure that the digitisation of the process would actually enhance the outcomes for the citizens and businesses. Today we can truly say that all our efforts have paid-off,” Gatt said.

“This is the factual realisation of Government’s Vision 2015, wherein we lead the pack through our knowledge, capabilities and determination to cut red tap.”

Chairman of the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) Claudio Grech said this success was primarily driven by a concerted effort to constantly re-invent the way electronic services are delivered, hence leveraging on the technological evolution to deliver first-class electronic services.

“We managed to converge the technological and administrative developments in the Maltese government into an e-Government synergy which has enabled us to always remain ahead of the curve in the deployment of electronic services. We pushed the boundaries of the online environment to open ourselves to a wider audience, capitalising on the Internet penetration in households and businesses which has increased exponentially over the last years." Grech said. 

The e-Government Benchmarking study has been annually prepared since 2001 and is compiled by Capgemini, Sogeti, IDC, RAND Europe and the Danish Technological Institute for the EC Directorate General Information Society. Malta first participated in 2004 and has significantly improved its performance year after year. 

The report measures six core indicators and through a ranking system, composed of online sophistication, full online availability, user experience for eServices, user experience for national portals, eProcurement visibility, and eProcurement availability.

The full report on the e-Government Benchmarking will be available in January 2011.