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E-government and developing countries: An overview

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INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF LAW COMPUTERS
& TECHNOLOGY, VOLUME 18, NO. 1, PAGES 109–132, MARCH 2004

E-Government and Developing Countries:

An Overview

SUBHAJIT BASU

ABSTRACT E-governance is more than just a government website on the Internet.

The strategic objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for
all parties; government, citizens and businesses. The use of ICTs can connect all
three parties and support processes and activities. In other words, in e-governance
electronic means support and stimulate good governance. Therefore, the objec-
tives of e-governance are similar to the objectives of good governance. Good
governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and administrative
authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels. It is not difficult for
people in developed countries to imagine a situation in which all interaction with
government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
without waiting in lines. However to achieve this same level of efficiency and
flexibility for developing countries is going to be difficult. The experience in
developed countries shows that this is possible if governments are willing to
decentralize responsibilities and processes, and if they start to use electronic
means. This paper is going to examine the legal and infrastructure issues related
to e-governance from the perspective of developing countries. Particularly it will
examine how far the developing countries have been successful in providing a
legal framework.

Introduction
The aim of this paper is to illuminate the (increasing) evolution, progress and promise of
e-government in developing countries and beyond. Beyond in the sense that it will cover the
issues, which would be affecting not just the developing countries but also all countries,
wherever possible the paper will look into the experience and examples in developed
countries and will draw up analogy. The possibilities are exciting: faster access to

Correspondence: Dr Subhajit Basu, Lecturer Information and Technology Law, School of Law,
Queen’s University Belfast, 29 University Square, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK; E-mail:
[email protected].

ISSN 1360-0869 print/ISSN 1364-6885 online/04/010109-24  2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/13600860410001674779
110 Subhajit Basu

government services, lower costs for administrative services, greater public access to
budgets and documents and a corresponding increase in the transparency and accountabil-
ity of government activities. However, with the promise of e-government there would also
be the challenges. For instance, the increasing threat of ‘Digital Divide’ causing wider
difference between the haves and the have-nots. Where the Internet is not available, the
technological ‘expertise’ untapped and incentives lacking, the concept of e-government
seems highly impractical.
It is not difficult for people in developed countries to imagine a situation in which all
interaction with government could be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, without waiting in lines. However, to achieve this same level of efficiency and
flexibility for developing countries is going to be far more difficult. Experience in developed
countries show that this would be possible if governments are willing to decentralize
responsibilities and processes, and if they start to use electronic means. Each citizen could
then contact the government through a website where all forms, legislation, news and other
information made available. It is assumed that the governments of developing countries, as
a collector and source of information, could follow this trend, to serve its customers
(citizens and businesses) better and to save costs by making internal operations more
efficient, cutting down the complex and over stretched bureaucratic system.
There are many definitions of e-government, and the term itself is not universally used.
Definitions of e-government range from ‘the use of information technology to free move-
ment of information to overcome the physical bounds of traditional paper and physical
based systems’1 to ‘the use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of
government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees’.2 The common
theme behind these definitions is that e-government involves the automation or computer-
ization of existing paper-based procedures that will prompt new styles of leadership, new
ways of debating and deciding strategies, new ways of transacting business, new ways of
listening to citizens and communities, and new ways of organizing and delivering infor-
mation.3 Ultimately, e-government aims to enhance access to and delivery of government
services to benefit citizens. More important, it aims to help strengthen government’s drive
toward effective governance and increased transparency to better manage a country’s social
and economic resources for development. The differences are not just semantic and
definitions and terms adopted by individual countries have shifted, as priorities have
changed, and as progress has been made towards particular objectives. In the context of the
OECD e-Government Project, the term ‘e-government’ is defined as: ‘the use of information
and communication technologies and particularly the Internet, as a tool to achieve better
government’.4
E-governance is more than just a government website on the Internet. The strategic
objective of e-governance is to support and simplify governance for all parties; government,
citizens and businesses. The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and support processes
and activities. In other words, in e-governance electronic means support and stimulate good
governance. Therefore, the objectives of e-governance are similar to the objectives of good
governance. Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and
administrative authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels.5
However, as regards to the objective of e-government a distinction should be made
between the objectives for internally focused processes (operations) and objectives for
externally focused services. The external objective of e-government is to fulfil the public’s
needs and expectations satisfactory on the front-office side, by simplifying the interaction
 E-Government and Developing Countries 111

Table 1. Summary of objectives

E-government E-administration E-governance

Policy coordination and Internal and public sector Facilitation of interactions

implementation; delivery of management component between citizens, government
services online organizations and elected
offices including governing and
policy-making process
Developing citizen-centric Strategic planning in How technology (particularly
programs transitioning to electronic the web) is transforming
delivery of services governing process
Promoting and enhancing Quantifying cost-effectiveness E-federalism: the changing
citizen participation of electronic service delivery relationship among the levels
of government; and
E-democracy: enhancing citizen
participation online voting,
issue of ethic, security and
privacy
Perfecting online service Benchmarking and Legislative and policy-making
delivery through analysis and performance measurement environment framework;
evaluation; measuring policy initiatives governments
efficiency and benchmarking are taking: the regulatory
against other forms of service framework, implications of
delivery initiatives like recognizing the
legality of e-signatures, greater
citizen participation in policy
making environment
(e-democracy)
Country indexing (performance Human resource management International implications:
measurement benchmarking) issues like training and lowering of borders through
portal analysis, website recruitment, deployment of information exchanges-impacts
analysis staff and maximizing existing and consequences;
resources international standards and
best practices; information
management and e-government

Source: United Nations, DPEPA, ASPA ‘Benchmarking e-government: a global

perspective—assessing the UN Member States’ United Nations Division for Public Economics and
Public Administration, American Society for Public Administration publication, May 2002 at p 54.

with various online services. The use of ICT in government operations facilitates speedy,
transparent, accountable, efficient and effective interaction with the public, citizens, busi-
ness and other agencies. In the back-office, the internal objective of e-government in
government operations is to facilitate a speedy, transparent, accountable, efficient and
effective process for performing government administration activities. Significant cost
savings (per transaction) in government operations could be the result (Table 1).6
Identifying potential gains from e-government is one thing; actually realising them is
another. Implementing ICT projects, particularly large-scale projects that could have a
major impact on service quality improvements or efficiencies, could raise a number of
problems, many of which relate particularly to operating within government.
112 Subhajit Basu

In order to examine the risk of implementing e-governance solutions the following

factors have to be taken into account:
• Political stability (democracy or dictatorial regime)
• Adequate legal frame work
• Level of trust in government (perception of service levels)
• The importance of government identity (fragmentation or integration)
• Economic structure (education, agriculture, industry or service)
• Government structure (centralized or decentralized)
• Different levels of maturity (weakest part of the chain determines speed)
• Constituent demand (push or pull)
These external e-government barriers often concern breakdowns, missing components or
lack of flexibility in the government wide frameworks that enable e-government. To adapt
to the e-environment, governments need to establish a legal framework that treats elec-
tronic processes and traditional processes equally.

Background of E-government
E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such
as Wide Area Networks, the Internet and mobile computing) that have the ability to
transform relations with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. These tech-
nologies could serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to
citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through
access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits
can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth,
and/or cost reductions. Traditionally, the interaction between a citizen or business and a
government agency took place in a government office. With emerging information and
communication technologies, it is possible to locate service centres closer to the clients.
Such centres may consist of an unattended kiosk in the government agency, a service kiosk
located close to the client, or the use of a personal computer in the home or office. The
e-government is supported by the regulations and policies of e-governance, bringing
together IT governance and global governance, as well. This is in turn supported by the
digital society developed by the connected environment. However, the society must contend
with the effects of the digital divide, which represents those members of the society who
cannot or will not access the connecting infrastructure.7
Caldrow wrote in 1999 ‘the term e-government has attained conversational status in just
four short years’.8 Therefore, even in the USA, a country that is the pioneer in innovation
processes, the term has been circulating for just seven years. On a European level, instead,
it was in 1999 that the foundations were laid for ‘Europe 2002, an Information Society for
All’ the first action plan of the European Union for the Society of Information,9 which is
now being substituted by ‘Europe 2005; an Information Society for All’.10
What does it take to become an ‘e-government’? To start with, the answer is not being
simple. The fact is that ‘the quest is multi-dimensional across leadership, policy, economic
competitiveness, education, digital citizen services, internal government operations, digital
democracy, and enabling technologies for each dimension’.11 Consequently, the first charac-
teristic is according to IBM, the multidimensionality of the e-government process. In order
to construct a lasting competitive advantage this multidimensional factor needs to be
implemented through the ‘seven e-government leadership milestones’: ‘integration, econ-
 E-Government and Developing Countries 113

omic development, e-democracy, e-communities, intergovernmental, policy environment,

next generation Internet’.12 In IBM’s vision, e-government is the foundation framework
within which to operate all the different changes in the different sectors, for which it is
unthinkable for example to implement e-democracy without e-government. It is now clear
how the latter does indeed represent, effectively speaking, ‘a change of mind’, a total shift
in perspective as utilized in the past, a revolution in the way of being of the public
administration towards its interlocutors.13
Evolution of e-government has some degree of similarities with the evolution of e-com-
merce. Analogous to e-commerce, which allows businesses to transact with each other
more efficiently (B2B) and brings customers closer to businesses (B2C), e-government aims
to make the interaction between government and citizens (G2C), government and business
enterprises (G2B), and inter-agency relationships (G2G) more friendly, convenient, trans-
parent and inexpensive. Tapscott14 identified such an evolution sequence for e-commerce.
He suggested that organizations matured from initially having a web presence only, to
offering transaction services and business front-end and back-end integration (as well as
several more sophisticated development levels). E-government also matures along a similar
development path, which starts with broadcasting, then interaction, followed by trans-
action, and finally integration. In broadcasting mode, the government’s presence would be
made with static web pages and one-way communication. The format of the early
government websites is similar to that of a brochure or leaflet. The value to the public is
that government information is publicly accessible; processes are described and become
more transparent, which improves democracy and service. Internally (G2G), the govern-
ment can also disseminate static information with electronic means.
In interaction mode, websites would be able to exchange information or services with
citizens, where citizens can enquire, and obtain resources from database backed websites
located behind a portal. The interaction between government and the public (G2C and
G2B) is stimulated with various applications. People can ask questions via e-mail, use
search engines, and download forms and documents. The fact is complete intake of
(simple) applications can be done online 24 hours per day. Normally this would only have
been possible at a counter during opening hours. Internally (G2G), government organiza-
tions use LANs, intranets and e-mail to communicate and exchange data.15
At the transaction stage, the public would be able to carry out (financial) transactions
with the government. This would require higher levels of processing capability, as well as
payment gateways and security implementation. In this situation, complete transactions
could be done without going to an office. Examples of online services are filing income tax,
filing property tax, extending/renewal of licenses, visa and passports and online voting.
Phase three is made complex because of security and personalization issues. E.g. digital
(electronic) signatures will be necessary to enable legal transfer of services. On the business
side, the government is starting with e-procurement applications.16
Finally, e-governments would reach integration stage where departments collaborate in
significant ways to avoid duplication of efforts, and a one-stop contact point is created,
which is capable of handling procedures of all involved departments. In this phase when all
information systems are integrated and the public can get G2C and G2B services at one
(virtual) counter. One single point of contact for all services would be the ultimate goal.
The complex aspect in reaching this goal would be mainly on the internal side, eg the
necessity to drastically change culture, processes and responsibilities within the government
institution (G2G). Government employees in different departments have to work together
in a smooth and seamless way. In this phase cost savings, efficiency and customer
114 Subhajit Basu

satisfaction are reaching highest possible levels. Hence, the forces that once converged to
promote e-commerce are now driving us to e-government, along with that, the computer
literate population in developed countries are increasingly accustomed to self-service.
Changes in the population and specifically in the workforce are forcing governments to ‘do
more with less’. The trend in the developed countries is to spend a record budget surplus
in funding its e-government expenditures.
Because every society has different needs and priorities, there is no one model for
e-government and no universal standard for e-government readiness. Each society’s and
government’s readiness for e-government would depend upon which objectives and specific
sectors it chooses as priorities, as well as the resources available at a given point in time
(which might depend on budgets, donors, etc). The necessary pre-conditions for e-govern-
ment depend upon a society’s most important needs. For example, the level of infrastruc-
ture, legal framework and human capital needed for e-government vary with the objectives
being pursued. It is also politically intriguing the idea of implementing a generic and
adaptable model e-government as it clashes with the understanding that each country and
region has its own peculiarities, constitution, and legal and political framework. The idea
is also simply unrealistic.
Once a vision and priority sectors for e-government are established, it is important to
assess how prepared a society is for e-government. Assessing e-government readiness
requires examination of government itself institutional frameworks, human resources
(including ICT managers, procurement officers, and others), existing budgetary resources,
inter-department communication flows, etc. National infrastructure, economic health,
education, information policies, private sector development and other issues are also
factors of society’s readiness. Even in developing countries where problems of low
connectivity and human resource development (including low ICT literacy) are severe,
creativity and careful planning can develop specific applications, services and information
that can be delivered in a targeted, useful way to identifiable audiences.17 A study by
Anderson Consulting found vast differences among countries in the maturity of their
e-government effort. Perhaps the key finding, however, was that even the most mature
countries have tapped less than 20% of the potential (Table 2).18

E-government and Developing Countries

One of the success stories of e-government is ‘eEurope’. The eEurope initiatives have been
both highly politicized and highly results oriented. The EU has showed its ability to track,
monitor and evaluate the implementation of each Action Plan, using a comprehensive
system of key indicators and benchmarking reports produced and submitted to leaders for
review and further action. The deliberately detailed implementation of eEurope and the
political commitment of the EU leaders to construct and actually enforce a knowledge-
based economy and society ‘for the benefit of all’, distinguish the EU from other global,
regional and sub-regional actors. The positive effects of political will and enforcement
through effective implementation benchmarking are perhaps the first lessons that develop-
ing countries may well learn from eEurope.
What is more important, ICT or clean water? No country, be it developed or developing,
large or small can afford to ignore those gains that ICTs potentially offer. For developing
countries this is even more pressing, given the ‘leapfrogging’ opportunities available
through modern technologies. I will discuss ‘leapfrogging’ later in this section.19 ICT and
e-governance, coupled with smart and timely government policies, have the potential to
 E-Government and Developing Countries 115

Table 2. Capability index

United Kingdom • Highly Developed E-environment and infrastructure

• Wide market access and network
• European Community standards
• Government promoted as exemplar in e-commerce
India • Emerging E environment and infrastructure
• Growing domestic base of world class technical expertise
• Rapid development of rural E-Commerce through State and local government
initiatives
Malaysia • Burgeoning E infrastructure
• Development of technical expertise
• Strong E-government initiatives
South Africa • Relatively rapid internet progress
• Largest African E economy
• Gateway to southern Africa
• Government pushing e-commerce
Singapore • Highly developed E environment and infrastructure
• Gateway to South East Asian markets
• Proactive E-Government and E-Commerce related government initiatives

Source: Commonwealth Working Group on Electronic Commerce, ‘E-Commerce in Commonwealth

countries “making it Happen” ’, 2000.

reach development objectives faster and at a lower cost than conventional approaches. One
particularly strong opinion questions the very relevance of information society in circum-
stances of persisting poverty, lack of clean drinking water, widespread corruption, and
other characteristics of developing countries that require handling immediately. One cannot
deny the vital importance of these and other problems, however it is not possible to avoid
that which is unavoidable. The delay in implementation would only cause added cost.
However, one can emphasize the importance of regional and sub-regional cooperation in
promoting the philosophy of the information society. Table 3 summarizes the impediments
to the growth of e-government in developing countries.
Therefore, e-government for developing countries raises some hopes and demonstrates
opportunities. Hence, where, do the developing countries stand in respect of the stages of
evolution. Before going into the details about the legal implications, it is essential to trace
here the required infrastructure of the developing countries in this context. The objective
here is to understand the balance of revenue spent to develop such capability and level of
utilization. It is beyond any argument that in the context of developing countries, ICT is
one of the most significant forces of modernization. Investment in communication in-
frastructures, and in training and learning, would enable developing countries to increase
their competitiveness as external service provider.
A 2001 study of the development of e-Government by UN identified the level of
e-government in 190 nations (UN/ASPA, 2001).20 The study outlined five stages of e-
government, spanning from emergence to integration. At the time of the survey, none of the
surveyed nations had achieved integration, and only 17 had achieved the transaction stage.
Most developing nations were either at the emergence or at the broadcast stage, thus
providing very few interactive services to their citizens. Nations with extensive interactive,
knowledge supported services typically also maintained a considerable IT and government
116 Subhajit Basu

Table 3. Factors impeding an enabling e-government environment in developing countries

Core Factors Symptoms Consequences

Institutional Weakness Insufficient planning Inadequately designed system

Unclear objectives Cost over-runs
Human Resources Shortage of qualifies personnel Insufficient support
Lack of professional training Isolation from sources of
technology
Funding arrangements Underestimated project costs Unfinished projects
Lack of recurring expenditure Higher maintenance costs
Local environment Lack of vendor representation Lack of qualified technical
support
Lack of back-up systems/parts Implementation problems
Technology and Information Limited hardware/software System incompatibility
changes
Inappropriate software Over-reliance on customer
application
Legal inadequacy Complex legislative procedure Lack of legal framework

Source: United Nations, DPEPA, ASPA ‘Benchmarking e-government: a global

perspective—assessing the UN Member States’, 2002, at p 22

infrastructure to offer these, and were generally well funded. This raises the question
whether e-Government is largely a question of resources, and specifically whether knowl-
edge management requires the provision of considerable financial and IT resources.21
The feasibility of having a successful e-government is directly depended on the govern-
ments’ overall ability and readiness to spend on the necessary information technology and
related costs. To provide a better understanding of the affordability, Table 4 illustrates IT
budgets for some developed and developing economies. Where known, the table also
separates targeted e-government funding from overall IT expenditures by the government.
Many governments choose not to separate these two and now consider all government IT
spending to be e-government spending. The table clearly shows the vast spending differ-
ences between developed and developing economies. However, there is another issue to
look into. Conventional budgetary structures (such as the one followed by most of the
OECD countries: vertical funding structures, in accordance with the core public manage-
ment principle of holding an agency accountable for achieving organizational objectives
and giving it the resources to accomplish those objectives) may not take into account the
specific needs of certain most e-government projects, particularly those involving long-term
funding requirements and collaboration across agencies. In order to maximize the benefits
of e-government for developing countries financing issues must be addressed. One commen-

Table 4. Government IT budgets for developed and developing countries

Government India Philippines Hong Kong USA UK

IT Spending in Million US $ 556 120 250 52,000 10,000

IT Spending as % of Budget 2–3 0.8 1.2 13 2.4
E-Government spending as Part of IT Budget (%) 34 75 0.08 5.2
 E-Government and Developing Countries 117

Table 5. Traditional budgeting and budgeting for ICT investments

Focus of traditional government budgeting Characteristics of high-value ICT investments

Single-year (or biennial) expenditures Multi-year investments

Programme-by-programme performance Enterprise or cross-boundary performance
Financial cost/benefits Financial and non-financial costs/benefits
Level of effort within existing work flows Changes in the flow of work
Ongoing operations ‘Start-up’ operations
Control Innovation

Source: Harvard Policy Group (2001).

tator (Harvard Policy Group)22 considered that there is a virtually inverse relationship
between transitional government budgeting and ICT investments (Table 5).
Development of e-governments is directly proportional to the IT infrastructure that is
capable of supporting and enabling the execution of e-government. An e-government
infrastructure in general comprises network infrastructure, security infrastructure, appli-
cation server environment, data and content management tools, application development
tools, hardware and operating systems, and systems management platform. However,
many developing countries do not have the infrastructure necessary to deploy e-government
services throughout their territory. A recent study by Harris23 compared the ICT situations
in six selected developing countries, based on World Bank data for 2000. Table 6 illustrates
the availability of two important technologies, telephone lines and personal computer
penetration, for several developing countries, as well as the number of Internet users. An
interesting finding is that the developing countries are very non-homogeneous with respect
to technology availability and use, differing by two orders of magnitude.
In a developing country, the gap between the educated elite and uneducated poor is wide.
The educated population have the necessary resources and have the means to use infor-
mation and communication technologies. There is the possibility that professionals in large
cities in China or India may find it about as easy to access computers as their counterparts
in the UK or Canada; however the situation would be clearly different for those living in
rural areas. This ‘digital divide’ between those who already have access and those who
would not gain access for a long time may result in long-lasting and widening economic
gaps between the ICT haves and have-nots. As a result, the provision of e-government
services would be biased, favouring educated, urban residents.

Table 6. Information and communication technology situations in six developing countries

India Bangladesh Thailand Malaysia China Philippines

Fixed lines and 35.5 5.0 142.6 412.3 177.6 124.4

mobile telephones
(per 1000 people)
Personal computers 4.5 1.5 24.3 103.1 15.9 19.3
(per 1000 people)
Internet users 5.0 million 100,000 2.3 million 3.7 million 22.5 million 2.0 million
118 Subhajit Basu

Table 7. Correlation of Internet access and penetration: cost of access

Correlation of Internet VS penetration (based on 20 hours of monthly net access)

Country Access cost (% of GDP per capita) Internet users per 1000

India 16.82 5
South Africa 5.26 35
Malaysia 4.85 90
Singapore 0.84 302
UK 0.91 554

Source: CIOL Enterprise Connect (CIOL) ‘Seven years of Internet in India—reliving

the incumbency factor’, 2002, website: www.ciol.com/content/news/trends/
102090501.asp.

The potential digital divide is clearly a concern, and yet it applies to many types of public
infrastructure, be it roads, airports, or schools. In fact, ICT may offer more hope in this
respect than other infrastructures, as technology and communication costs are continuously
dropping, and energy for computers can be provided through small power generators or
solar cells. As experiences shows, a local village may not have roads, a schoolhouse, or
telephone landlines, but with a satellite dish and a cyber cafe, it is possible to be connected
to the world. However, connecting people by making investments in the technology would
be comparatively an easier job than bringing and keeping them online. The key to
encourage citizens in developing countries to use the Internet would be to provide them
with compelling content and services that meet their primary needs (Table 7).
Most of the developing countries understand the enormous potential of ICT, not only as
a tool for improving governance and creating more jobs, but also more significantly as a
means to enhance the standard of living of the people. The ICT policy aims at increased
application of IT in all occupations, enhancing the IT industry base, creating a robust state
information infrastructure and creating human resources for IT. Although the policy
statements of differs from country to country however there are some fundamental
similarities in the objectives, which can be summarized as following:

• Upgrading of the standard of living of the people of the state through use of IT in all
sectors as a tool to enhance productivity, efficiency and optimum utilization of
resources, and through full exploitation of the employment potential of the IT sector.
• Establishment of an information infrastructure comprising a high speed broadband
communication backbone, nodes, access network, distributed data warehouses and
service locations to cater to the needs of trade, commerce, industry and tourism and
also to enhance the delivery of government services to the people.
• Facilitating the flow of direct investments.
• Development of human resources for ICT through increased use of ICT in educational
institutions and through academic and training programmers that improve the em-
ployability of educated youths in the ICT sector.
• Facilitation of decentralized administration and empowerment of people through the
application of ICT.

Currently, there are insufficient numbers of people in developing countries trained in

appropriate technologies available to do all the work. Training opportunities are also
 E-Government and Developing Countries 119

straining to meet needs. The digital divide, while closing, demands that multiple-delivery
channels be maintained for the near future. Many people are concerned about the issues
surrounding privacy and confidentiality, even to the point of opting out of e-government
opportunities. Technologically, the lack of a single, unifying infrastructure coupled with
differences in implications, applications and data structures increase the difficulty of
sharing information between departments and levels. Labour rules and policies particularly
in public sector can strongly influence how new tasks and skills are introduced. Geograph-
ical boundaries, less important to commerce and communication, are still ingrained in the
political process. In some cases, the use of the Internet or other channels has been mandated
for government use, whether or not doing so makes sense technologically. Although the
expanding economy is providing the funding to fuel the necessary expenditures for
e-government, the regulatory framework and funding models are lagging, a situation
further complicated by a model in which the groups paying for services are not necessarily
the recipients of the services. Finally, although government services are typically seen as
environmentally clean, the impact of providing high bandwidth to the curb can be
enormous.
However focusing on the achievements of e-governance and ICT for developing coun-
tries it would be prudent to mention here some of the success that ICTs presented
particularly the opportunities to the disadvantaged to help themselves, seize advantages and
demand services or control over their lives that they previously lacked. These examples are
multiplying, as collaborative approaches and partnerships between the public and private
sectors are demonstrating the broader value of advanced communications services:
• In Brazil’s urban slums, the Committee to Democratise Information Technology (CDI)
in four years has created 110 sustainable and self-managed community-based ‘Com-
puter Science and Citizenship Schools’, using recycled technology, volunteer assist-
ance, and very limited funds. CDI schools train more than 25,000 young students per
year in ICT skills that give them better opportunities for jobs and education. CDI also
provides social education on human rights, non-violence, environmental issues, health,
and sexuality.24
• The Association for Progressive Communications and Partner Networks implemented
a Gender and Information program. The program gave women in Africa, Asia and
Latin America the necessary technical skills, computers, hardware, and networking to
plan the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women and to disseminate the results.25
• An example of how new networking can help sub-national governments to become
more responsive and transparent is the case of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.
Andhra Pradesh was the first state in India to design a statewide computerization
program covering all levels of the administrative spectrum from the smallest—the
Mandal Revenue Offices—to the largest (eSEVA). The state-wide Multi-Purpose
Household Survey was launched in 1995 to store large volumes of citizen data and
information exchange through networking, and Land registration offices throughout
the state are now equipped with computerized counters under the Computer-aided
Administration of Registration Department (CARD) project. Before the computeriza-
tion programme, tedious bureaucracy, and lack of transparency in property valuation
resulted in a flourishing business of brokers and middlemen who exploited citizens
selling property, since a premium was usually attached to speedy delivery of services.26
The success of these projects has reaffirmed the faith in what has been termed as ‘leapfrog’
technology. New, innovative and cutting edge technology could help developing countries
120 Subhajit Basu

overcome their traditional barriers of lack of telecommunications infrastructures. In

developed economies, newer versions of technology are often used to upgrade older
versions, but in developing economies where still older versions of technology are often
prevalent, the leapfrogging over the successive generations of technology to the most recent
version creates more possibility and often provide access to newer, efficient and often
cheaper alternatives to traditional capital intensive technologies.27
As the situation stands today it is in the interest of the developed countries to play an
important role in promoting technology adoption in developing countries, with inter-
national organizations such as UN or the World Bank providing the necessary funds.
However, pushing e-government initiatives to achieve a significant impact on establishing
a digital society and a connected economy would prove to be an elusive goal without
proper investment in basic services such as healthcare, education. E-government solutions
and approaches used in developed countries may also prove inadequate without a clear
understanding of local constraints and conditions.

E-government and Legal Issues

The success of e-government initiatives and processes are highly dependent on govern-
ment’s role in ensuring a proper legal framework for their operation. A requirement for
e-government processes to be introduced and adopted is their formal legal equivalence and
standing with the paper process. OECD governments are aware of the need for framework
to provide for enforceable electronic transactions, both in the e-government sphere and for
e-commerce, and have taken action. For example, the legal recognition of digital signatures
is necessary if they are to be use in e-government for the submission of electronic forms
containing sensitive personal or financial information. As of 2003, 26 of 30 OECD countries
have passed legislation recognising digital signatures, though a much smaller number have
actually introduced applications beyond a pilot phase.28
The key concern for the developing countries would be to identify the legal issues. As
explained before in this paper, it would not be difficult to provide definitive guidelines for
the developing countries as to what type legal safeguards would be necessary to protect the
interests of the government and to create binding and enforceable obligations on the
government. However, the developing countries are in different stages or phases of
e-government, they differ in their political aspirations and in their structure of government
and so their requirements would differ and so would their course of action.
The developing countries would face a few key questions in converting to or adopting
electronic processes. To start with, the first question that would arise is the question of
legitimacy. Legitimacy may express itself through expressions of authority to act, which is
related to but not the same as saying that an action is not illegal. In some settings, the
legitimacy of government action would affect the enforceability of the action, either on the
part of government against a person subject to that government’s rule or on the part of
private citizen against the government. Hence, to provide legitimacy to act electronically
can only be conferred by legislative measures and supported by an effective legal frame-
work. This framework should be capable of identifying and addressing legal obstacles to
e-government. Legal obstacles may include the differences that exist between traditional
data collection requirements (that is, sharing of information collected by and provided to
various government agencies) and the ease of electronically collecting and sharing data.
Legitimacy also turns on the standards of appropriateness. What kind of qualities should
e-government action have, or some standards it should meet, in order to achieve the desired
 E-Government and Developing Countries 121

level of legitimacy. In certain situations, an electronic process would prove to be ‘good

enough’ to meet its legal needs without regard to whether it is comparable to or as good
as its prior process. At the other extreme, would be the situation where electronic
conversion would require a complete re-engineering of their course of action in order to
address the legal risks and issues that a particular system presents or that are not being
addressed as effectively in their existing system. Because most of the developing countries
owing to lack of resources would still depend largely on their existing paper-based systems
as a reference point in their analysis, hence the legal framework would require to have a
point of compatibility, which I think would be quite unique for these countries. As the
situation stands, at least in the near future most of these developing countries would
require having both systems of transactions. In order to achieve the legislative revisions,
enactment would be required, as current laws, rules, and regulations might not recognize
the legality of electronic documents and processes. For example, legislation should ensure
that electronic authorizations, contracts and signatures would have the same legal effect as
those done on paper. (However, because of the nature of technology, giving them the same
legal effect may change or even eliminate the traditional ways these items are completed,
such as the notarising of a document.) Additionally, governments may consider the
required quorum at meetings be met through the electronic participation of officials rather
than by the officials’ physical presence.
It can be said that much of what a government, or those who deal with a government,
would look for in an electronic communication would be a latent degree of assurance as
to the security of the communications and their source: who sent them? Any user would
primarily be concerned about the integrity of the information communicated, in the sense
that it is trustworthy and that it has not been altered since it was sent. Similarly, the
concern would also be about jurisdiction. However, the issues relating to jurisdiction
would be similar in case of both developed and developing countries. The only point of
concern is how it should be addressed. E-government for developing countries would also
put the judicial system of these countries to test. Generally, the judiciary in these countries
are not always in tune with the use and advancement of technology.
Electronic communications appear particularly susceptible to attacks on privacy; in most
of the developing countries, privacy is a softer issue and hence even with proper legal
framework it can be argued how far privacy of personal information would be maintained.
Likewise, fair access to public services is one element that would bring back the issue of
‘digital divide’ within the developing countries-providing facility to the more able citizens.
At some point, this would cause the law to impose constitutional limitations on govern-
ment’s ability to move wholly online in order to maintain equality.29
The legal status of government documents is always of high importance simply because
of the weight of authority. One sees this in the priority they are frequently given in evidence
statutes. This could be considered as a higher form of authenticity accorded to these
records, but it has an impact on the demands made of electronic communications so that
they would deserve the same respect that paper documents receive. Pushing this theme
further, it can be argued that the integrity that the public expects of government commu-
nications is not just that they are unaltered but their content is true. That is not a question
of the medium used.
Finally, government use of electronic communications has to be politically acceptable to
the opinion makers of a society. No amount of technical excellence can guarantee that any
manifestation of e-government would meet this standard. One does hear from politicians,
and sometimes from business people, that government should lead the way to making
122 Subhajit Basu

people confident about electronic communications being safe and effective. This is a
technical aspect of the legitimacy argument that proper government use can encourage
general use of paperless records,30 but how far the governments in the developing countries
particularly the politicians themselves are comfortable with the technology is matter of
debate.
Not all these concerns are specifically related to developing countries nor do they give
rise to legal consequences, but any discussion about e-government for developing countries
could not be made without discussing these issues. However, the difference would be in the
level of priorities. Some factors would play more important roles in some governments than
in the others.
Ideally, a legal framework that allows for the implementation of e-government processes
and services will:

• Preserve basic public policy goals, such as privacy and security, retention, and public
access to information.
• Provide the statutory basis of, authority for, and regulations related to the government
processes and services that may be supplied electronically.
• Assign responsibility for and ownership rights to the data provided and accumulated
electronically.
• Address the sharing of data collected by one government agency with other govern-
ment agencies that require the same information.
• Clearly, define jurisdictional responsibilities related to intergovernmental transactions
and business to government transactions.
• Provide a mechanism by which legal requirements are recognized and enforced.
• Provide a basis for the establishment of fees related to electronic processes and
services.
• Identify the records that should be maintained, the period of retention and the
required storage media.
• Not be technology-specific or favour one form of service delivery (traditional or
electronic).
• Minimize costs and the potential for litigation.

Legislative Approaches
As in every other developed country, the traditionally drawn legislation in developing
countries, drafted largely in a paper-based environment is formulated in a manner not
tailored to the legal recognition of electronically generated, stored and transmitted infor-
mation. This feature of legal systems, is epitomized by the traditional basic requirements
scattered throughout legislation, calling for documents (including, for example, contracts)
to be in ‘writing’, for an ‘original’ to be submitted to various governmental agencies, and
for documents to be ‘signed’ by the purported author. Such traditional formulations can be
found throughout a legislation (e.g. Civil Code, Law of Evidence, Arbitration Law),
affecting diverse activities such as filing of documents regarding movement of cargo
through ports, admissibility in court of computerized banking records, securities trading
and many others. Such paper-based formulations define requirements in public law as to
the form of information that has to be provided to governmental authorities by business
and citizens for various purposes (e.g. applications for permits and licenses, documents
required to be filed with customs, tax and other authorities). Such paper-based notions also
 E-Government and Developing Countries 123

apply to the legal validity of various types of communications exchanged amongst the
private sector in its commercial activity. Moreover, this legal condition leaves the evidential
value in court of electronically generated, stored or transmitted evidence uncertain at best,
or renders electronic evidence inadmissible at worst.
Some of the developing countries have introduced legislation following UNCITRAL
Model Law on Electronic Commerce. The advantage, indeed the indispensability of
utilizing a legislative approach stems from the fact that it is beyond the contractual power
of parties to overcome obstacles such as those described above, to the extent that those
obstacles are embodied in mandatory rules of law. Moreover, utilizing legislation to
address such fundamental issues provides greater legal certainty than reliance purely on
contractual solutions. Hong Kong enacted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance (effective
7 April 2000; enacted 7 January 2000), which covers electronic and digital signatures and
electronic records. This act is generally applicable to all communications. South Korea’s
Basic Law on Electronic Commerce also covers digital signatures and is generally applicable
to all communications. Malaysia has its Digital Signature Bill of 1997, which became
effective on 1 October 1998. Singapore’s Electronic Transactions Act of 1998 (enacted 29
June 1998) covers digital and electronic signatures as well as electronic records, and is
generally applicable to all communications. Similarly, Thailand’s Electronic Commerce
Law 2000 covered electronic signatures and is generally applicable to all communications.
In the Philippines, the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (enacted 14 June 2000) encom-
passes electronic signatures, electronic transactions and crimes related to e-commerce. The
Electronic Transactions Order of Brunei (enacted November 2000) covers electronic
contracts, as well as digital and electronic signatures. India’s Information Technology Act
of 2000 (implemented in October 2000) covers digital signatures and electronic records, and
is generally applicable to all communications.

Privacy
The right to privacy is fundamental to any democratic society. It is not just ‘a’ regulation
but it is recognized as a fundamental right in all major international treaties31 and
agreements on human rights and in the constitutions of most countries in the world, either
explicitly or implicitly. The slightest apprehension on the part of a person using the Internet
about who will see their personal information and how it will be used would by itself mean
that they have lost a basic freedom. Moreover, the more others know about the details of
a person’s life, the greater their opportunity to influence, interfere with, or judge the choices
the person makes. Having knowledge and control of how personal information is provided,
transmitted and used is the key to protecting privacy.
Ensuring that e-government initiatives are in step with society’s expectations in this area
is a crucial means of building trust. The challenge facing e-government coordinators and
implementers is to respect accepted privacy principles while allowing the benefits of the
Internet and other technologies flow to citizens. This balance is of particular importance
when considering seamless government services involving data sharing among agencies. Of
utmost importance is information privacy, ‘individual’s claim to control the terms under
which personal information—information identifiable to the individual—is acquired, dis-
closed and used’.32 The role of governments regarding privacy protection is twofold and
therefore always ambiguous. Governments have to ensure the respect of the rule of law, but
do also play a proactive role in the development of a welfare state. Finding a correct
124 Subhajit Basu

balance between these two roles of the modern State will always remain one of the core
problems in the development of a regulatory framework in this area.
Government has a responsibility to provide leadership in developing a culture of privacy
protection and security. It should provide this leadership through its roles in the develop-
ment of public policy, as owner and operator of systems and networks, and as user of such
systems and networks. As a user of information systems and networks, government shares
a role with businesses; other organizations and individuals for ensuring secure use of the
system and network.
The OECD was the first inter-governmental organization to issue guidelines on inter-
national policy for protection of privacy in computerized data processing. In 1980, the
Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data (Privacy
Guidelines) were adopted as a Recommendation of the OECD Council. They were
followed by the 1985 Declaration on the Transborder Data Flows, and more recently by the
Ministerial Declaration on the Protection of Privacy on Global Networks, adopted by
OECD Ministers at the 1998 Ottawa conference, ‘A Borderless World: Realising the
Potential of Global Electronic Commerce’. At that conference, OECD Ministers reaffirmed
‘their commitment to the protection of privacy on global networks in order to ensure the
respect of important rights, build confidence in global networks, and to prevent unneces-
sary restrictions on transborder flows of personal data’.33
Among the perceived benefits of electronic transactions between citizens and govern-
ments is the opportunity to collect ‘customer’ information that can be used as a key input
to operational and policy decision-making. It is relevant to point out here one such
operation where government uses substantial personal information. It is in the case of
billing. Billing transactions are a fruitful source of information that allow strategic planners
to sift and analyse transactions to identify key trends and unmet service needs, and, because
of this, determine the future operational priorities of an agency. For the private sector, that
information is an increasingly significant source of business advantage. The variety and
sophistication of online identification technologies have increased accordingly, allowing the
ready collection and display of an individual’s personal details, purchasing history and
commercial value. In marketing terms, it allows a focus beyond groups and subsets of
groups, to the ‘customer of one’. As attractive as this focus might be to public sector
planners, the possibility that an electronic transaction will provide an instant window on
a citizen’s details represents a real threat to personal privacy while online. If the objective
of electronic billing is to encourage citizens to adopt a low-cost transaction channel, the
belief that it will permit unwanted intrusions by government agencies into personal
information is likely to act as a major disincentive. Technology also further complicated the
issue by what is known as ‘Caching’ and ‘Cookies’. ‘Caching’ occurs when any web page
accessed by a user is stored by that client’s computer (client caching) or by the network
server that provides the user with access to the internet (proxy caching). Caching causes a
potential problem where it occurs for profiling purposes. The use of ‘cookies’ is more
intrusive, as they have the capacity to build profile on the needs, preferences and patterns
of expenditure of any individual visiting particular web sites. Cookies work by placing an
identifying code on the hard drives of those who visit the site. This code allows the visitor
to be tracked as they travel through the website and to be recognized on subsequent visits.
These technological developments have increased the surveillance potential of the
government and prompt the demands for specific rules governing the collection and
handling of personal information. The question could no longer be whether information
could be obtained, but rather whether it should be obtained and, where it has been
 E-Government and Developing Countries 125

obtained, how it should be used. A fundamental assumption underlying the answer to these
questions is that if law allows the collection of personal information, the fairness, integrity
and effectiveness of such collection and use should also be protected.
Regrettably, most of the legislation mentioned above does not specifically offer a broad
protection of individual privacy. In principle, OECD guidelines specify the following for
protection of privacy:

• Personal information must be collected for a lawful purpose;

• Personal information must be collected directly from the individual concerned;
• The individual must be made aware of a number of matters (including that infor-
mation is being collected, the purpose for which the information is being collected, the
intended recipients of the information, and the name and address of the agency
collecting the information);
• Personal information must not be collected in an unlawful or unfair manner;
• Personal information must be protected by adequate security systems;
• Individuals are entitled to have access to, and request correction of, personal infor-
mation held about them;
• Personal information shall not be used unless it is accurate, up to date, complete,
relevant and not misleading;
• Agencies must not hold personal information for longer than it is required; and
• Personal information must not be used for any purpose other than that for which it
was collected.

However, none of these principles excludes the use of billing transactions to create citizen
profiles. They do, however, require that such use is both transparent and done with the
consent of the individual concerned. The question for public sector agencies, then, is
whether the perceived benefits of this offset the risk that the bulk of citizens will avoid
electronic transactions in favour of traditional and therefore less intrusive billing and
remittance channels.
Privacy must be addressed in the planning and design of e-government systems since it
is much harder to interject privacy protections after a system is built. Government websites
and online services should fully comply with the fair information principles outlined. How
far the developing countries recognize these issues as legal obstacles is a matter open to
argument. Business interests govern policies and practices in most developing countries.
Hence governments would find that proposed measures to protect privacy meet the staunch
opposition of business interests which see such safeguards as an expense and an unjustified
constraint on their right to conduct their business affairs as they wish. Hence, finding a
balance between the legitimate need to collect information and the need to protect privacy
would become a major challenge for the developing countries.
The developing countries that have developed legislations or are currently developing
laws are doing it in an effort to promote e-commerce. These countries recognize that
consumers are uneasy with the increased availability of their personal data, particularly
with new means of identification and forms of transactions, and therefore that their
personal information is being utilized worldwide. Data privacy laws are therefore being
introduced, not from a human rights perspective, but rather as part of a package of laws
intended to facilitate e-commerce by setting up uniform rules
126 Subhajit Basu

Authentication
Authentication is an element of security. Security can be divided into two elements:
network security and document security. Security is never absolute; it is relative.34 The legal
implication of an insecure network is caution about what one commits to the network, and
how one keeps backup copies of documents. The second element of security is document
security, which essentially influences how sure one can be of the answers to three questions:
‘what?’, ‘who?’ and ‘where?’. Document integrity is the first: has the document been altered
from what was intended by the parties to a communication? The practical issue for
integrity is how one keeps one’s data from being altered inappropriately or from being
assed or destroyed by unauthorized persons. Document source is the second element: who
made the document and who sent it? This is usually known as the question of authenti-
cation. The issue for authentication is how one can be sufficiently sure that one knows who
one is dealing with.35 The challenges faced by the developing countries is not that much
different from the developed countries; with only one possible exception that is, developing
counties’ governments may be more tolerant of the risk.
How does the government know who it is dealing with? To a lesser extent, how do
people dealing with the government know that they are really dealing with the government?
There are two elements to this function: identification and verification. There is always a
tension between authentication and privacy. As stated before governments have records
that can be used to identify people reliability, but privacy laws at least in developed
countries limit such activities to known programs and information collected in anticipation
of those programs. In practice, much of the discussion of authentication turns on the use
of signatures precisely the issue of electronic signatures.
It is not easy to classify the existing legislations with respect to electronic authentication
because of the many differences that exist. It is possible, however, to sketch the main
approaches at a national and international level. Three approaches can be identified: (1) the
digital signature approach; (2) the two-prong approach; and (3) the minimalist approach36
(Table 8).
The digital signature approach is characterized by its focus on the digital signature
technique. Legislation under this category is truly digital signature legislation because it
regulates (on the basis of) digital signatures. Legislation under this approach is concerned
solely with the (evidentiary) status of the digital signature. The approach has three variants:
1. Technical variant: The technical variant amounts to setting the digital signature
technique as a technical standard by means of a legal instrument. The technical
variant does not deal with legal consequences, although such consequences may
implicitly follow from the use of digital signatures in accordance with the law
concerned.
2. Legal variant: The legal variant of the digital signature approach is found in
legislation that specifically regulates digital signatures in order to provide this
technique with a legal status similar to that of the hand-written signature. The general
purpose of these laws is to provide legal security for the use of digital signatures.
Often legislation of this kind also includes the implementation and regulation of a
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
3. Organizational variant: The organizational variant of the digital signature approach
neither sets the digital signature as a technical standard nor provides for explicit legal
recognition of the digital signature. Instead, it addresses the organization of
Certification Authorities (CAs) and the use of digital certificates in connection with
 E-Government and Developing Countries 127

Table 8. Three approaches to electronic authentication

Technology- Technology-
neutral specific Examples Definition

Digital Technical ⫺ ⫹ Germany, Setting digital

signature variant India signatures as technical
approach standard (no explicit
legal consequences)
Legal variant ⫺ ⫹ Utah, Italy Legal recognition of
digital signatures under
certain conditions
Organizational ⫺ ⫹ Japan Requirements for
variant certification authorities
Two prong ⫹ ⫹/⫺ UNCITRAL Legal recognition of
approach (EU, secure electronic
Singapore) signatures under
certain conditions
Minimalist ⫹ ⫺ UNCITRAL Equation of electronic
approach (Australia) signatures with
hand-written signatures

Source: ‘Synthesis’ (Approaches in Electronic Authentication Legislation; available from

www.rechten.uvt.nl/simone/Ds-art4.htm#sy2).

digital signature applications. The aim is to promote trust and reliability in electronic
transactions by ensuring that CAs is reliable and secure.37

The second approach is called ‘two-prong’ because of its hybrid way of dealing with
electronic authentication. In this approach, legislators aim to make their legislation more
time-resistant by addressing certain technological requirements and by leaving room for
new technological developments. With this approach, legislation sets requirements for
electronic authentication methods that will receive a certain minimum legal status (the
minimum prong) and assigns greater legal effect to certain electronic authentication
techniques (the maximum prong). The technologies given this higher legal status are
referred to as ‘secure electronic signatures’.38
The minimalist approach does not address specific techniques and therefore intends to be
technology-neutral. Legislation relates to the functions that signatures may have to fulfil in
trade, and the different levels of reliability with respect to the purposes the signatures are
used for. Because the main focus of this approach is on the relevant functions of signatures
and the ways in which these functions may be translated into technological applications, it
is also called the functionalist approach. Within the minimalist approach, the focus on
functions of signatures (and writings) can be more or less explicit.39
The market is constantly changing and it is unknown what lies ahead with respect to
technological developments. Thus, it might be unwise to issue detailed regulations and to
determine specific business models, such as the PKI model, since their viability cannot be
ascertained. Viewed in this light, the digital signature approach is seriously flawed.
Although, the legislators and regulators subscribing to this approach may do so for all the
right reasons (legal certainty, trustworthiness with respect to legal matters), the approach
is not recommended as such. The same is true, but to a lesser extent, of the two-prong
128 Subhajit Basu

approach, which attempts to skirt the uncertainties by presenting an opening for new
technologies aside from setting criteria for certain advanced electronic signatures which at
present cover digital signatures. The approach is understandable in the sense that there
seems to be a strong inclination to look for clear and trustworthy solutions, while at the
same time there is a need to leave room for new solutions. Still, within the two-prong
approach legislation often deals with issues and situations (e.g. CAs, liability, qualities that
focus mainly on certain techniques) that have not yet been determined. Finally, both the
digital signature approach and the two-prong approach are in many instances focused too
narrowly on signatures as such and not on formal requirements as a whole.
The minimalist approach taken in the UNCITRAL Model Law offers the most sensible
solution to legislators wanting to tackle the problem of formal requirements in their
legislation. Under this approach, legal requirements of form are generally dealt with in their
entirety. Moreover, the minimalist approach allows for different functions which tech-
niques have to fulfil under national legal systems, while creating room for new techniques
and adventitious developments. Recent legislative initiatives recognize the advantages of the
minimalist approach and have explicitly taken the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic
Commerce as an example.40
Much of the discussion above put emphasis on differentiating the legal position, which
presupposes the presence of paper, and legal position in the electronic age. However, it is
interesting to note why one was using paper, is it because it was required by law or is it
because of the convenience of paper’s qualities in use. In law, a pencilled ‘X’ may serve as
a signature, for example on the will of an illiterate person. However, most people would
not accept a cheque with a pencilled ‘X’, in the signature line. What is legal and what is
prudent might be different.
The law applicable to e-government is evolving quickly, on a framework of information
and technology and public expectations in quick development. The narrow questions of
legal authority of government to use electronic communications are relatively easy, partic-
ularly as they are now expressly dealt with in enabling statutes based on UN Model Law
on Electronic Commerce.41 However, developing countries require specific legislations,
which would be capable of accommodating their particular needs. The paper has discussed
the main legal question relating to privacy and authentication. It is difficult to legislate with
broad application on these subjects, for two reasons: first they to some extent contradict
each other, second the technology changes so quickly that laws based on one particular
hardware, software or configurations of them are likely to be outdated by the time they are
enacted. For developing countries, it is best to be cautious. The law cannot require what
technology cannot support. The law for developing countries here is likely to be validating
rather than normative. When the gap between a flexible application of current law and
demands for new technology grows too great, then legitimacy of e-government comes more
severely into question. However different developing countries depending upon their
priorities would decide when that point would be and would find a way to act when it
arrives.

Conclusion
Hence, what is e-Government for developing countries? A new slogan of the developed
world for development of third world or is it a new opportunity of re-organising the
instruments and the logic of governing? Probably all of them. However, e-government is an
unlikely key for bridging the digital divide. The solution would be to persuade citizens in
 E-Government and Developing Countries 129

developing countries to use the Internet by providing them with convincing content and
services that meet their essential needs. Free availability of compelling content may be the
single most important action to boost Internet use and reduce the digital divide, but this
could clash with protection of intellectual property rights. The best way forward would be
to help developing countries in providing the necessary technology. It is going to be the
technology that would play a significant role in accelerating developments in area that lags
behind on traditional industries. Investments in communication infrastructure and in
training and learning would enable developing countries to increase their competitiveness
as external service providers. E-marketplaces or national and regional portals could provide
new routes for local products, knowledge and skills to be made available on a global basis.
Technology can transform governments, making them more transparent and accountable,
which would make it impossible to sustain levels of obscurity and corruption that are
typical in many of these countries. Last but not least, technology investments in developing
countries would boot revenue for vendors that struggle in more mature economies
particularly at times when cost-cutting is having a negative impact on new, ambitious
‘e-initiatives’.
Therefore, what is next for developing countries? First, they would require implementing
in terms of formulation of national e-strategies according to standards set by internation-
ally agreed principles for information society, and then implementation of the very
strategies themselves with modifications according to their won requirements. With only a
few exceptions, most of the developing countries are still at varying stages of the
formulation/approval process. The delays appear to be a consequence of lack of inter-
national cooperation to this end. The implementation phase would require translating
commitment into action at both levels: national and regional. The big challenge would be
to bring national e-strategies into overall development and governance practices.

Notes and References

1 Available from http://www.cddc.vt.edu/digitalgov/gov-publications.html.
2 Deloitte and Touche ‘At the dawn of e-government: the citizen as customer’. Available at
www.publicnet.co.uk/publicnet/fe000620.htm.
3 Rogers W’O Okot-Uma ‘Electronic governance: re-inventing good governance’ Commonwealth
Secretariat, London, 2002, www1.worldbank.org/ publicsector/egov/Okot-Uma.pdf at p 5.
4 OECD ‘The E-government imperative’, in OECD E-Government Studies. OECD, Paris, 2003,
p 22.
5 M Backus ‘E-governance in developing countries’, IICD Research Brief No 1, March 2001,
website: www.iicd.org; see also P Norris ‘The worldwide digital divide: information poverty, the
Internet and development’ Harvard University, 2000. Available from http://
www.ksg.harvard.edu/iip/governance/psa2000dig.pdf.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 J Caldrow ‘The quest for electronic government: a defining vision’ Institute for Electronic
Government Director of the Institute for the Electronic Government of IBM, 1999.
9 Presented on 19 and 20 June 2000 at Feira European Council.
10 Presented at the Seville European Council on 21 and 22 June 2002.
11 Caldow, op cit, note 8.
12 J Caldow ‘Seven e-government leadership milestones’, Company Report. Institute of Electronic
Government, IBM Corporation. Available at www.ieg.ibm.com.
130 Subhajit Basu

13 F Amoretti ‘The electronic government: a new frontier of internationalization processes?’ Paper

presented at the 23nd Conference and General Assembly IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI Intercultural
Communication. Section: Audience and reception Studies Session 8: ICT, Audiences, and Users,
Barcelona, 2002.
14 D Tapscott Blueprint to the Digital Economy McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998.
15 The Interact Phase of E-Government:Case Example: Namibian Parliamentary web site—inviting
citizens to participate online in their national government. Through its web site, the Parliament
of Namibia engages citizens in the democratic process by affording them the opportunity to
participate online in political discussions, and the opportunity to stay up-to-date with the
legislative developments of the Namibian Parliament. In particular, bills up for consideration are
posted online and citizens can send comments directly to parliamentary representatives. The site
also links to many regional councils, which have similar web sites. Website: http://
www.parliament.gov.na.
16 The Transact Phase of E-GovernmentCase Example: E-Procurement System, Chile—Revamping
offline rules and regulations in order to establish an efficient online procurement system. Prior to
the establishment of portals to conduct government transactions online, the government procure-
ment system in Chile was fragmented and burdened with various, sometimes contradictory
regulatory frameworks. In 1998, the government formed the Communications and Information
Technology Unit (UTIC) and conferred on it the mandate of coordinating e-government efforts
in an attempt to control costs and bring transparency to the system. The UTIC completely
revamped the underlying system of procurement by centralizing all purchasing activities through
a central web site. This website automatically sends emails to private companies registered on the
system when contracts come up for bid and takes bids online. Not only has the new system
streamlined procurement, it has also created new methods of oversight and accountability. For
example, the site includes statistics and other information on past performance of government
contractors. Website: http://www.compraschile.cl (in Spanish).Case study: http://www1.world
bank.org/publicsector/egov/eprocurement chile.htm.
17 ‘The roadmap for e-government in the developing world’ The Pacific Council on International
Policy, April 2002. The Working Group on E-Government in the Developing World http://
www.pacificcouncil.org/pdfs/e-gov.paper.f.pdf.
18 ‘A definition of e-government’ http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/egov/definition.htm,
The World Bank Group.
19 ‘Digital Development Initiative Opportunity Report’ prepared by UNDP, Accenture and the
Markle Foundation. http://www.undp.org.
20 UN/ASPA ‘Benchmarking e-government: a global perspective’, United Nations, Division of Public
Economics and Public Administrations, and American Society of Public Administration, 2001.
http://www.unpan.org/e-government/ Benchmarking%20E-gov%202001.pdf.
21 C Wagner, K C Cheung and R Fion ‘Enhancing e-government in developing countries: managing
knowledge through virtual communities’ The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in
Developing Countries Vol 14, No 4, pp 1–20, 2003, website: http://www.ejisdc.org.
22 Harvard Policy Group ‘Improving budgeting and financing for promising IT initiatives’ Network-
Enabled Service and Government Report, 2001.
23 R Harris ‘Government policies and strategies on ICT for rural poverty reduction in the Asia and
Pacific region: review and analysis’ Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on ICT in Rural Poverty
Reduction, ESCAP, Bangkok, 28–29 January 2003.
24 InfoDev Working Paper ‘The networking revolution opportunities and challenges for developing
countries’ Global Information and Communication Technologies Department, The World Bank
Group, June 2000. The working paper was based on material from: (1) The infoDev Reports ‘The
network revolution and the developing world’ prepared by Analysys Ltd, 2000 and ‘Analysis of
national information infrastructure’ prepared by Pyramid Research, 2000; (2) J Grace, C Kenny,
J Liu, C Qiang and T Reynolds ‘Telecommunications, the Internet and broad-based development’
Internal World Bank Report, Washington, D.C., World Bank, 2000; (3) C Kenny, J Navas-
Sabater and C Qiang ‘The draft Global ICT Department Report “ICTs for Poverty
 E-Government and Developing Countries 131

Reduction Tool Kit” ’ 2000; see also InfoDev and Centre for Democracy and Technology The
e-Government Handbook For Developing Countries The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2002.
Available from http://www.cdt.org/egov/handbook/2002-11-14egovhandbook.pdf.
25 M Graham 1997 ‘Use of information and communication technologies in IDRC Projects: lessons
learned’ Report prepared for IDRC. Available at http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/outputs/op-eval.htm.
26 FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient, Network for Disbursement of Services) is set up in
every district head quarters by the IT department. FRIENDS is a unique project taken up by the
government to provide the benefits of IT to the common man. This offers the citizen an integrated
point for utility payments for specific services such as electricity charges, water charges, property
tax, professional tax, building tax, etc. The server of the FRIENDS centre is being linked to the
server of the concerned departments for updating on a real time basis. A friendly ‘Help Desk’
helps the customers to fill up forms and clarify their doubts. The project when completed is
expected to benefit 12 million people of the state, i.e. about 40% of the population. With a view
to disseminate increased application of IT to the rural people, in association with the library
council, the IT department has started a novel project called SEVANA. The project envisages
converting about 400 libraries in rural areas into IT dissemination centres by providing free
Internet connections so that they can function as rural information centres. A software package
named SEVANA provides information on various government schemes, programmes, general
information on local bodies, links to important sites, and other important facts relevant to the
rural population. The pilot project, which was implemented in Kallara Panchayat in Trivandrum
district, has been functioning very well. The centre became a point of convergence for villagers
seeking information services and an entry into the world of computers and computer literacy. The
people from rural areas are able to get various utility services through the Internet. Training for
Internet awareness is also being organized in these centres.The Vijaywada Online Information
Center (VOICE) delivers municipal services such as building approvals and birth and death
certificates. It also handles the collection of property, water and sewerage taxes. The VOICE
system uses five kiosks located close to the citizens. These were linked to the back end processes
in the municipal offices through a wide area network. The application has reduced corruption,
made access to services more convenient, and has improved the finances of the municipal
government (known as ‘municipal corporations’ in India. http://www1.worldbank.org/public-
sector/egov/voice cs.htm#top
27 The promise of ‘Leap frog technology’—Navrongo, Ghana, for details visit www.idrc.ca/evalu-
ation/documents/Navrongo/NAVRONO.HTM#information.Wireless Technology in Action—
Grameen Telecom (Bangladesh) It is one such success story about a country where teledensity is
one of the world’s lowest, an innovative idea based on cutting age technology has been able to
by-pass traditional technology, leap-frogging into the information age. See also The Working
Group on e-Government in the Developing World ‘Roadmap for e-government in the developing
world: 10 questions e-government leaders should ask themselves’ Pacific Council on International
Policy, Los Angeles, 2002. Available at http://www.pacificcouncil.org/pdfs/e-gov.paper.f.pdf.
28 OECD, op cit, note 4.
29 B Krebs ‘G8 Nations Mull Digital Divide Task Force Report’ (1 June 2001, Washtech.com),
online: http://www.newsbytes.com/. The United Nations has also been concerned. See R Shim-
mon ‘From digital divide to digital opportunity’. Online: http://www.integratedjustice.gov.on.ca/.
23 December 2000, UNESCO, online: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/.
30 See Electronic Commerce Task Force, Industry Canada ‘Government as a at 728. Model User’ in
Canadian Strategy on E-Commerce, December 2000, online: http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/english/strat/
662.html.
31 K U Leuven ‘Roadmap for Advanced Research in Privacy and Identity Management (RAPID)’, Jos
Dumortier and Caroline Goemans, Interdiciplinary Centre for Law and ICT (ICRI), 2002.
32 ‘Principles for providing and using personal information’; available from http://iitf.doc.gov/ipc/
ipc/ipc-pubs/niiprivprin final.html.
33 OECD, op cit, note 4.
132 Subhajit Basu

34 S Gibson ‘The strange tale of the denial of service attacks against GRC.COM’, 2001,
www.grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm.
35 J D Gregory ‘Electronic legal records-pretty good authentication?’ Canadian Association of Law
Librarians, 1997. The official version at p 61, www.callacbd.ca/1997summit/authjohngre-
gory.html
36 ‘Approaches in electronic authentication legislation’, available from http://rechten.uvt.nl/simone/
Ds-art4.htm# Toc468692769
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 J D Gregory ‘Solving legal issues in electronic government authority and authentication’,
Canadian Journal of Law and Technology Vol 1, pp 1–16, 2002.
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