BRUNEI Darussalam has moved up to the 17th position out of 198 countries for the e-Government country ranking in the "Improving Technology Utilisation in Electronic Government around the World 2008" report by the Governance Studies of the Brookings Institution.
This has been a big leap for the country which was placed at 28th position in 2007.
The study reviewed the current condition of electronic government and made practical suggestions for improving the delivery of information and services over the Internet.
The rankings are decided on the basis of 18 different features. According to the report, points are awarded to websites that have the following features: publications, databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign language access, not having ads, not having premium fees, not having the user fee, disability access, having privacy policies, security policies, allowing digital signatures on transactions, an option to pay via credit cards, email contact information, areas to post comments, option for email updates, option for website personalisation and PDA accessibility.
Brunei scored 41 per cent in the study, an increase from 36.5 per cent that had put Brunei in the 28th position in 2007. Brunei has done reasonably well in terms of online services where it scored 50 per cent, 100 per cent in publications and databases respectively. However, the research also showed that Brunei has weak points or shortcomings in privacy policy where it scored 25 per cent, and zero per cent in security and disability accessibility. These shortcomings need to be overcome for future e-Government initiatives.
According to the study, the most highly ranked e-government nations are South Korea (securing the 1st position for the second consecutive year), Taiwan, the US, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Germany and Ireland.
Singapore, which was placed 4th, is the top rank country among Asean nations with 53.1 per cent, dropping down two places from its 2nd position (54 per cent) in 2007.
Singapore was placed among the top four as it scored 100 per cent in privacy policy and security policy, 97 per cent in publications, 67 per cent for databases, 63 per cent for online services and 10 per cent in disability accessibility.
Other Southeast Asian countries ranked above Brunei include Malaysia at 11th place with 42.8 per cent, a significant leap from its 25th position in 2007.
Malaysia scored 75 per cent in its online services, 88 per cent in publications, 50 per cent in data bases, 75 per cent in privacy policy, 50 per cent in security policy and 38 per cent in disability accessibility.
Cambodia is placed at 70th position with 33 per cent, moving up 17 places from its position in 2007.
Philippines is at 89th position with 31.3 per cent, Myanmar at 93th position, Thailand at 138 position, Laos and Indonesia at 151 and 175 positions respectively.
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