Financial Times

UN ranks Sri Lanka 3rd in South Asia in e-Government readiness
The UN Global e-Government Readiness Report 2005 ranks Sri Lanka in third place in South Asia on e-government readiness and systematic implementation of e-government projects.

The report presents a comparative ranking of the countries of the world according to two primary indicators: the state of e-government readiness and the extent of e-participation, the Information Communications Technology Agency said in a statement. Sri Lanka ranks 94 among the 191 countries in the UN system. The Maldives was placed first in South Asia and ranked 77 in the world for e-Government readiness.

“In 2004 Sri Lanka ranked 96 in the world e-government achievement index and this time we advanced to ranked 94,” said Wasantha Deshapriya, Director of Government Re-engineering Programme, a key component of the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ programme.

The report said the overall online presence in Sri Lanka is reflected at the ministerial level although the sites remain mostly informational and static.
Despite progress in 2005, Sri Lanka has more to achieve in the field of e-governance, Deshapriya said.

“Our aim is to provide key citizen services online in the future. According to this report, governments in the high income countries are far advanced in their provision of public information, online services, communications and outreach to citizens, and overall electronic access to government. The bottom 32 countries, offering rudimentary e-services, show little relative progress,” he said.

ICT Agency, the implementation body of the re-engineering government programme, plans to connect all the government organizations through broadband and facilitate online payments for citizens and government departments.

According to the global e-government readiness rankings in 2005, the United States is the world leader followed by Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Among the developing countries South Korea leads with Singapore, Estonia, Malta and Chile close behind.

Constructing a model for the measurement of digitalised services, the survey assesses the 191 member states of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-government readiness based on website assessment; telecommunication infrastructure and human resource endowment.

Back to Business