Jordan drops seven places in global e-gov't ranking

AMMAN — Jordan ranked 98th globally in the UN E-Government Survey 2018, dropping seven places when compared to the 2016 survey.

The survey, which covered 193 countries, indicated that Jordan made progress in the index of E-Government Development (EGDI), which measures countries’ use of information and communications technologies to deliver public services. The Index captures the scope and quality of online services, status of telecommunication infrastructure and existing human capacity and is rated between zero (lowest) and one (highest).

Jordan's EGDI value was 0.5575 compared with 0.5123 in 2016.

Meanwhile, with regards to the e-participation index, Jordan scored 0.4831 in 2018 compared with 0.4576 in the previous report.

Regionally, Jordan seized the 8th place in the report, preceded by the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Tunisia respectively, according to the report.

The UN E-Government Survey report looks at how e-government can facilitate integrated policies and services across the three dimensions of sustainable development, and is produced every two years by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, according to its website, which noted that it is the only global report that assesses the e-government development status of the 193 UN Member States.

Last year, the government unveiled its Economic Growth Plan (EGP) that aims to automate procedures to reach an e-government by 2020. 

More than 100 government e-services are currently offered by various institutions, with the number expected to reach 131 services in 2019 and 293 services in 2020, according to the ICT ministry. 

Commenting on the report, ICT Minister Muthana Gharaibeh said: "Some mistakes that were committed over the past period have resulted in the seven-rank decline. These include technical errors and issues that have to do with coordination and sluggishness by various public entities in updating data in due time."

"We need not to repeat these mistakes and not to hide any information whether negative or positive," he told The Jordan Times on Monday, stressing "we do not lack experience or competence…we need better coordination and to intensify efforts with the participation of all entities and institutions".

The minister stressed the government's commitment to launching e-services in accordance with a specific timeframe, noting that it will continue developing such services to save time and effort.

Stressing the importance of the global report, he said the ministry's work will focus on building on points of strength and addressing points of weakness.

Denmark, Australia, and the  Republic of Korea came out on top of the 2018 ranking. 

Globally, almost two thirds of 193 United Nations Member States now demonstrate a high­ level of e­-government development with EGDI values in the range of 0.5 and one. The share of countries with low e-­government levels, between zero and 0.25, has dropped by a significant 50 per cent, from 32 countries in 2017 to 16 countries in 2018.