E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation So Far and Citizen's Adoption Strategies

E-government - Malaysia

Various countries, including Malaysia, are implementing electronic government, generally known as ‘e-government’. The status of e-government implementation in Malaysia is widely discussed as to the potential of e-government implementation towards the public and businesses. The implementation of e-government started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysian government.

The e-government initiative launched the country into the Information Age. It will improve 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 flow and processes within the government, improve the speed and quality of policy development, and improve coordination and enforcement. This enabled the government to be more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. Under the e-government flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-government applications.

The e-government projects are:
1. Project Monitoring System (PMS)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

The recent survey about e-government adoption in Malaysia, which was done by market information group TNS, indicated that the e-government use is growing but at a slow pace. As shown in the study, about 15% of Malaysians have used the internet to access online government services in year 2003 compared to 12% in year 2002. In the survey, Malaysia’s ranking is 25th out of 32 countries in terms of e-government usage growth. The Malaysians are also concerned about the security of doing transactions over the Internet and this resulted in low usage of e-government services. As far as the age group is concerned, the younger Malaysians who are under 34 are the primary users of e-government services. Also noted in the survey, households with high incomes and higher levels of education actively use the e-government services.

The implementation of e-government services will bring benefits to the public, businesses and the government itself. As for the public, saving time and money are the primary reasons to use the e-government implementation, the governments should market their offers, improve citizen’s awareness of the benefits and increase take-up of online services.

However, implementing a successful e-government project is not without any barriers during the process. Hence, adopting good strategies are crucial in order to overcome these barriers.

Four main barriers could affect Malaysia’s e-government implementation.
1. Legislative and Regulatory Barriers
2. Budgetary Framework
3. Lag Behind Technological Change
4. Digital Divide Impedes the Benefits of E-Government

Citizen’s adoption strategies

E-Government adoption is affected by website design elements that provide perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, by user characteristics such as sense of perceived risk, feeling of perceived control and prior Internet experience, and also by citizen satisfaction with the quality of its services.

1. Customer satisfaction
E-Government adoption requires that citizens show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. A higher level of customer satisfaction will increase the rate of e-Government adoption.

2. Service Quality
Online service quality for e-Government could be measured in terms of quality of content provided on the website, the speed of the response to the citizens concerns with problem solving approach, and the availability of names. Other important measurement factors are telephone and fax numbers of personnel with whom citizens might need to get in touch, and the integration of an offline channel with online channel so that citizens could interact with government departments through other means if necessary. Higher quality of service will lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and thus can increase the use of e-government services.

3. Website Design
Personalization of websites, customization of product offerings, and self-care are the three key features that could be used not only to build relationship with the visitors, but also to enhance their experience. These features give visitors a sense of control and participation and could potentially enhance their adoption

4. User Characteristic
User characteristics such as perceived risk, perceived control, and internet experience can have a direct impact on internet adoption. Experience influences a citizen’s trust of e-Government. Users with prior experience, especially if satisfied, would be more likely to return to use e-Government services. Perceived risk leads to security and privacy issues that could discourage the use of online services. It is important to ensure that citizens can transact online securely and their personal information will be kept confidential to increase the level of trust and the e-government adoption rate.

The government should be able to propose an effective strategy to encourage citizen’s adoption of e-government by focusing on these 4 areas.