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

E-government is the use of information technology in to provide citizens and organizations with more convenient access to government information and services and to provide delivery of public services to citizens, business partners, and those working in the public sector. It focus on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.




The E-Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It has improved both 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; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

There are few applications is launch by e-Government such as e-filling of Income Tax, Renewing Road Tax and Driving License online, and KWSP’s i-Akaun.

Examples:

E-Filling Income Tax at http://e.hasil.org.my



Renewing Road Tax and Driving License Online




However, there are some problems faced in e-government implementation:

(1) There is a language barrier because most of the government websites using Bahasa Malaysia.
(2) There is a technological barrier in e-government system because the system lack of technical infrastructure. Maylaysian may not know how to use it.
(3) The online behavior also is one of the problems faced in e-government. Malaysians remain sceptical on being distrust on electronic transaction especially on online banking buying from an Internet store.
(4) The e-government system lack of public awareness. Public are not aware of the services offered.


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

Government can provide websites with multiple language versions to enable the user which is not good in Bahasa Malaysia. Government may also increase awareness of the e-government services through TV and radio advertisements, and organizing workshops at shopping malls.
Besides that, government can provide consultation services on how to use those services and simplify procedures needed to access to the e-government services.