Georgia among top 50 performers on E-participation

More Georgian citizens are going online, with the country ranked 56th in terms of E-government and 49th in terms of E-participation in the 2014 United Nations E-Government Survey, improving on last year’s result by 16 and 17 places. The country placed 72 among 193 UN countries in terms of E-government and 66th in E-participation last year.

A ranking of UN Member States comparing E-government - digital interactions between Governments and people - varied greatly among and within regions but most countries had made progress on providing greater access, according to the new survey.

Despite Georgia being among the lower-middle income countries, it was also among the top seven in this category included in the top 50 performers in terms of E-participation around the world. However the report highlighted the digital divide between other high and low-middle income countries was “substantial”, as measure by the percentage of population using the Internet. For example in 2013, a vast majority of the population used the Internet in Sweden (94 percent), Estonia (79 percent) and Singapore (74 percent), which contrasted hugely to Costa Rica, Georgia or Egypt, where less than half of the population had access to the Internet.

The 2014 survey included a set of questions that assessed the development of data publishing. According to the report, Georgia was among the countries that scored higher than 66.6 percent on data publishing in 2014. “The 2014 survey scored Ireland, El Salvador, Luxembourg, Peru, Qatar, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Thailand and Argentina higher than 66.6 percent in data publishing, even though those countries do not have dedicated open government data portals,” the survey read.

“Researchers, nevertheless, were able to access many relevant databases across portals. This implies that they already have policies in place for centralising and digitising data and that they are ready to take the next step: publish data in bulk and in open formats through dedicated portals,” read the report.

The top five countries in the E-Government Development Index are Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore, France and the Netherlands. In general, the study found that for the first time in 2014 all 193 UN member states had national websites.

Also, between 2012 and 2014, the number of countries that offered mobile apps and mobile portals doubled to almost 50 countries, and only 46 member states had dedicated data portals.
(agenda.ge)