Electronic or e government is the process of transformation of the relationship of government with its constitution – the citizens , the business and between its own organs, through the use of the tools of Information and Communications Technology.
It means that the government is embracing the internet to provide services to business (G2B) and citizens (C2C), as well as government to government (G2G), citizen to citizen (C2C), government to supplier (G2S) and government to employee (G2E).
Many countries use e-government as an enabling tool to increase efficiency, enhance transparency, collect more revenue and facilitate public sector reform.
In year 2000 European Union Summit in Lisbon set ambitious goal of making Europe the world most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy.
It resulted in the e-Europe Action plan to exploit the full potential of the Internet to promote a competitive economy with objective is to make it easier to deal with local, regional and national governments by making services available electronically.
The benefits of e Government are reduced costs through more efficient processes, the integration of disparate agencies systems, and improved service to citizens via the internet and other electronic channels.
Three factors are critical for the successful implementation of e-government. These include willingness to reform, availability of information communications technology infrastructure and the institutional capacity to absorb and manage change.
Investment by government will also decrease the cost of doing business through simplification of procedures self-service systems and one stop shop for enterprises. The biggest beneficiaries here will be the small to medium enterprises, which are the backbone of the European economy.
E-government requires the government fundamentally rethink all aspects of governance and service delivery to see how it can take advantage of technology and new business models to improve the efficiency of internal processes, as well as change the nature and quality of government interactions with both individuals and businesses.
E-Government
