E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies.

E-government is a general term describing the use of technologies to facilitate the operation of government and the disbursement of government information and services. E-government is an abbreviation of the phrase electronic government. E-government deals heavily with Internet applications to aid in governments, but also covers a number of non-Internet concerns.

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement

The implementation status of e-government project in Malaysia:

• Project Monitoring System (SPP II)


• Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)


• Generic Office Environment (GOE)


• Electronic Procurement (EP)


• Electronic Services (E-Services)
  
• Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)


• E-Syariah

The current applications of e-government in Malaysia such as:

• Government’s drive for e-government services


• Electronic Labour Exchange (http://www.elx.gov.my/) has matched 75,000 potential employees with employers since 2005.


• SMS alert on e-government services


• Online renewal of driving licenses


• Electronic filing of income tax forms


• Voter information


• Details for government tenders
  
• Employment opportunities
  

Problems faced in e-government implementation:

• Lack of public awareness – 60% of the public are not aware of the services offered. Solution: Increase awareness through TV advertisements and organizing workshops at shopping malls.


• Online Behaviour - Malaysians remain sceptical on being distrust on electronic transaction especially on banking online and buying from an Internet store.


• Language barrier – Most of the government websites had in the past been in Bahasa Malaysia. However, there are English versions now. But still have many citizen are not proficient in english languages, so they are lack of language to access the e-government applications.
  

Ways to encourage more citizens to use the e-government applications:

• The government needs provide websites with multiple language version such as chinese, malay,india and so on. For these purpose, it allow citizen can select the language they want and also make more convenient for them to read and understand it.


• Next, increase awareness through TV and radio advertisements, and organising workshops at shopping malls.


• Provide consultation services on how to use those services. It is provided who is lack of knowleged for using computer to access e-government.


• The government needs marketing expertise to better promote awareness, encouragement and dissemination of information on the benefits that can be obtained by using e-government

As a conclusion, the main challenge in e-government in Malaysia is the technological challenge, which includes issues like standards, data integration, legacy maintenance and privacy and security. The key priority in Malaysia now is to improve the core government application and integrating more service across agencies.