Sri Lanka Rises in UN’s eGov rankings

According to the 2014 United Nations E-Government Survey, Sri Lanka’s risen considerably in the subject of eGovernance. Citing the government information portal (gic.gov.lk), the report states that

Sri Lanka’s e-government policies have been geared towards including all segments of the population and offering services to everyone, regardless of their IT literacy levels or access to the internet. With mobile usage rates in the coun-try exceeding 100 per cent and even the poorest people today having cell phones, albeit basic, Sri Lanka offers many m-government services.The Government Information Center (GIC) is now providing more than 65 on-line services through basic phones calls, such as train schedules, job opportunities abroad, flight schedules, exam results, economic indicators, medical services and contact details.Even though the IT literacy rates jumped from 9.7 per cent in 2004 to 40 per cent in 2012, the numbers are still not high enough to allow maximum utilization of the e-services the government provides. With the GIC, all-inclusive e-services can be delivered to the rich and poor alike and hence everyone can become a beneficiary of the digital advancement in government.This new policy of inclusiveness and outreach towards the general population helped Sri Lanka improve in e-government service delivery and to jump from 115th rank in EGDI in 2012 to 74th in 2014.

Which apparently makes gic.gov.lk the 74th best online government portal in the world (as measured in eGDI) and Sri Lanka the best in the South Asia region, with Maldives coming in second.

The champion – and perhaps role model – for South-Eastern Asia is still Singapore, with its extremely high mobile and boradband penetration and data sharing structures. A multi-agency program led by Singapore’s Ministry of Finance (circa 2005) consolidates the IT systems, human resources, finance and infrastructure for a number of government agencies ouising an Accenture ERP platform. (see this 2013 factsheet on ida.gov.sg for more details).