E-Government of Kuwait
V.S
E-Government of Bahrain
ABSTRACT
Electronic Government is considered to be a vital national policy that countries throughout the world are grappling with. Developing countries, such as Middle East countries are trying to get onto the e-government bandwagon the correct way. The current paper attempts to compare between Kuwait electronic government and Bahrain electronic government. The growth percentage of internet integration in Kuwait and Bahrain governments discussed, as well the population interaction for both countries. The paper concluded that for both Kuwait and Bahrain governments the internet integration is almost the same and both countries are determined towards E-government development, however, statistics presented in this paper reveals that the usage of the population, Kuwaiti have more interaction and usage 46.6% increase for period 2000- 2008 compare to Bahrain [38.7% increase for the same period].
Keyword: E-government, E-commerce
1. INTRODUCTION
A general definition of e-Government is the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enhancing the activities and services of government (Heeks, 2004), e-Government further defined as “the use of ICT to transform government by making it more accessible, effective, and accountable” (InfoDev, 2002). Many governments in the world use two kinds of forms when it contact with their population these forms are called Internet based or non-Internet based government, the first form is e-government is often thought of as “online government” or “Internet-based government”, the second form is “non-Internet “electronic government” technologies.
Example of some non-internet forms may include telephone, fax, PDA, tracking systems, RFID, biometric identification, SMS text messaging, MMS, wireless networks and services, Bluetooth, CCTV, road traffic organization and regulatory enforcement, identity cards, smart cards and other NFC applications. For example British government, attention via electronic government with the aim to re-engage citizens with the political process, they use the form of experiments with electronic voting, with objective to raise voter turnout and making voting simple.
Ultimate e-government means that all government transactions become on line or automation. studies shows that this can be achieved if the e-government experienced four stage classification in which e-government moves from simple web presence or informational e-government to the upper stage of transactional e-government, wherein government services are delivered seamlessly through a one-stop shop or portal (Prattipati, 2003).the following diagram shows these stages.
1.1 THE STATE OF E-GOVERNMENT IN THE GCC
The stable and a solid leader in e-Government throughout the GCC and Arab regions is Bahrain and it is still stable in the world rankings grabbed the lead from Dubai. The telecommunication infrastructure index and the human capital index are the two other indices complementing the Web measure index to make up the UN e-Government readiness index. (Table 1 shows the top 10 Global e-government readiness ranking from period 2007-2005). The ranking measurement used to compare and reflects the service levels provided by e-government web sites and portals. GCC countries have transactional in web a higher index than only informational ones. GCC countries are progressing in the pinnacle of the world’s hierarchy of e-government supremacy. Because the number of services enclosed increases this index. At the same time, this index generally reflects content and delivery of e-government services.
GCC government should first educate their citizen how to using internet from adopt the procedure from, high e-government readiness boils down to a simple equation; government services, also should be reengineered and delivered over a ubiquitous Internet infrastructure to educated people. If government not follow the changes over the world and not e-delivery their services this lead the index to be low, because of confrontation to change and a extremely entrenched bureaucratic culture; this lead to access to e-government is incomplete because of the limited reach of the Internet infrastructure; or citizens not take into account to use e-government services (this what the Chinese government adopt).
Citizen readiness is not an issue for all GCC countries because their score very high on the human capital index. Nevertheless and in spite of huge investments in ICT, most are hitting a problem as the Web measure index is not considered as elastic as the other two, because it needs more than financial investments to increase significantly. Bahrain is called the only country that holds tangible promise to continuously increase its Web measure index, for instance it introduces its smart card design for a diversity of necessary transactions.
2. E-GOVERNMENT IN KUWAIT
Kuwait e-government entails interconnecting the variety of government offices in a singlewide area network; it takes into account that the internal systems (central databases, payroll and HR applications, etc) of the different of government agencies are obtainable through the Internet. Kuwait is scheduled to yield online version of all essential public services in 2007, but it is now in the half way through its e-government project. The major consultant in the e-government project is Microsoft, which is estimated by Madar Research to cost around $450 million.
Kuwait national identification system will make the delivery of e-government services easier than those states in the region that have not yet adopted such system. For example, the use of national identification card number of each citizen in issuing e-mail addresses for the entire population that will allow inhabitants to use government e-services and validate their correspondence with public departments, banks and other organizations. Implementation of the e-government plan has been rather slow. According to Madar Research, survey just 36 government departments in Kuwait have a vigorous website, and 75% of them have no ability for feedback apart from for occasional e-mail contacts.
E-government of Kuwait has adopted E-Mirsal program that help to complete shipping and customs solution developed by Dubai Customs to helps agents, shippers, transport companies and other organizations in the cargo business to submit and process their customs clearing documents and payments over secure Internet connection 24 hours a day. This solution deployment first in Kuwait and Oman after that it is be adopted by all GCC states.
Kuwait’s General Warehouses Co. (KGWC) is the system has been customized to get together the requirements set by the Kuwaiti government to increase its international trade exchange. It has important role such as, manages Kuwait’s Free Zone, signed 9 an agreement to deploy E-Mirsal in Kuwait City, and it has been Kuwait’s Customs’ partner in using IT systems, which serve Kuwaiti cargo and shipping companies that are trading with other countries.
Website of Kuwait government offer Arabic and non Arabic content, for non-Arabic speaking they faced difficult to access Arabic only information on the government agencies’ basic services websites. In addition, only 25% of the Web sites have a search engine. The government Websites to date not offers transactional functions, for instance online payment of traffic fines or utility bills. Kuwait government has two websites, www.e.gov.kw and www.kuwait.kw service as e-government services, as a government portal. These two websites take in to account to offer their services in Arabic and English, because the Arabic is major language of these countries and the English language is first world language.
2.1 EDUCATION
In 2002, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Kuwait, initiated the 25-year plan to modernize the education system, because the students configuration around one fifth of the population and the areas which take into account this plan specially, installing electronic education ‘Education Net’ to connection public schools and libraries to a solitary network. Their objective is to raise the use of PCs in the classroom in all 620 public schools, 34 % of which were covered by the Ministry of Education and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS). In 2003 short-term goals include in covering elementary schools and they attain a ratio of one PC for every eight students in 2007-2008.
By 2009-2010, the major goal of government that has been subsidizing projects to achieve a ratio of 1 PC per 8 students in public schools and private learning institutions. Some schools have prerequisite units on Computer Science to arise students level. To support education and attractive students, the new Omar Center at the Kuwait National English School has a 1:1 student-computer ratio and a fully networked environment. Some confidential organizations like the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS) available computers to schools and colleges to sustain efforts for scientific improvement.
There are five major campuses in Kuwait University with the setting up of a converged network that supply distance learning. All students in the University use the digital library to provides them with a video on-demand facility where all the live lectures are recorded and backed up to an online library, counting a portal to register for academic courses and get information via the Internet. As well as, Kuwait University has included e-business solutions for payroll, supplier payments and human resources solutions. MOE in Kuwait use 24 public intermediate and secondary schools to supply as pilot sites for an e-learning unit. The Ministry of Education hopes to incorporate projects for intermediate and secondary schools by school year 2006-2007.
2.2 HEALTHCARE
Kuwait’s Ministry Health adopted the state-wide electronic filing system and now is a predecessor for the state’s clinic and hospitals to ultimately connect in a single network and a essential database for more efficient patient record management system, and to offering modern equipment and facilities.
The Ministry of Health in Kuwait concern about their citizen, and they try to available the best service for them, such as in the last couple of years started implementing a number of ICT projects, there objective is to fully automate national healthcare delivery and management through a centralized database and an Internet-based network. MOH projects, came at different levels of completion, such as the ministries overall plan to institute e-government in the healthcare domain. The major projects, of MOH run on a UNIX/LINUX operating systems, in addition to Windows NT and Oracle relational database system, are the setting up of Electronic Medical Records, a Primary Health Care System, Hospital Management Information System (for both General and Specialized Hospitals), Administrative and Financial Affairs system, Decision Support Systems, Health Registration System, Health Insurance System, Birth & Death Information System, and Warehousing and Portal Systems.
The Ministry’s Department of Information developed in house system called the Primary Health Care System (PHCS),, is installed in all principal healthcare centers in Kuwait, and all users such as doctors, pharmacists, and nurses have been trained on the system. This new PHCS system has many function to do such as serving the ministry to produce and sustain a major database. The system is reported to be saving processing time, helping reduce drug waste and allowing physicians to spend more time with patients. And it is considered to be guideline to the creation of a single electronic healthcare file, which is shared between all MOH hospitals.
2.3 MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
(http://www.e.gov.kw) is the website of Ministry of Interior it was recognized to help all public to gain information about issues relating to the Interior Ministry. These issues may include services supplied by the ministry for instance driver’s licenses, passports, traffic violations, expatriates’ residencies and information for women about voting. The site offer many services, for example services to make inquiries about traffic violations using the car plate number and the civil ID number. This site also offer another service provides expatriates information about their residencies. This can be achieved by entering the person’s Civil Identification number. This site give the capability to ensure the validity phase of official documents such as driver’s licenses, passports, and voter’s registration.
2.4 MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
(http://www.moj.gov.kw) is the site of Ministry of Justice which contains common information about the ministry, including information on all the departments and sectors, and a service directory that contains a list of services supplied by the ministry. Users can choose the link they required to gain information about subjects for instance the law, required documents, cost, and address and telephone information of the services described on the site. These services can not be completed online. The Kuwait Court website is still need to be development. The MOJ has no publications that can be accessed, but their site offers two services. First users can observe if they are excluded from travel by entering their Civil ID number. Second users can also vision information such as date and instance of trials by browsing the database. There are a number of forms accessible in PDF format, as well as information about the position of the ministry. Users can post comments or recommend through an online form. A planned service for the site is a feature called “Mahkama Online” (The Court Online). And it is uncertain what services will be presented during this feature. There is no foreign language translation for this site.
2.5 PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION
(http://www.paci.gov.kw) is the site of The Public Authority for Civil Information the major job of agency is to issue a unified identity to all citizens and expatriates, and to set up a unified national bank of civil information. “PACJ” site contain of many parts. The first gives a short report of the authority and its major targets. Second there are a number of electronic services for persons such as Civil ID renewal, Civil ID status, Civil ID validity. Third a service that gives all the needed information for modifying residential address, alter or adjustment of name, change of the personal photo, and others. Forth site mentions all the required documentation, where services can be carried out, and the scheduled fees. Finally there is a link called Statistics that provides statistical information about the Kuwait population.
3. E-GOVERNMENT IN BAHRAIN
Bahrain government has pursued a practical strategy of economic differentiation, compromise huge emphasis on ICTs. The Kingdom of Bahrain is a relatively high E-Government readiness rating of 0.5101. Bahrain ranked as the top in the latest, because they spent significant effort towards this level.
When we review the UN E-Government Readiness Report 2004 and ranked 46th globally we can observed that, Bahrain’s overall Index Value of 0.532, according to the report, is higher than the World Average Index of 0.413. (Source: UN E-Government Readiness Report 2004). Bahrain government at the same time use diversification policy with regard to technology choosing Linux as the foundation for its e-Government program.
In addition, by reviewing the current level of telecommunication services in Bahrain we can reach to point that it considered to be one of the highest in the ESCWA Region, helping to provide the infrastructure for future success. Bahrain Economic adopted liberalization and privatization procedure, bringing the benefits of increased competition and openness to the country.
The strategy of Bahrain to support this vision came through generated an e-Government Program’s. This framework include six major project elements:
- National Data Services.
- National Smart Cards.
- Government Data Network.
- Security Strategy.
- Central Services.
- Business Systems.
Bahrain framed this projects by a master plan, which details interdependencies, a plan for the future and project milestones. Bahrain regularly updates of project status are publicly available, rendering this e-Government initiative one of the most open and transparent in the ESCWA region.
Bahrain government in addition to its efforts in e-Government, adopted a policy of economic diversification and promotion of commercial activity. To achieve this objective, Bahrain has sought free trade agreements within the Gulf Coast Country region, and with other nations as well as the United States.
Bahrain yielded significant consequences when they spent their efforts to integrate ICTs into its public administration infrastructure. Initially installed in 1996, the Government Data Network project has supply the significant physical communications infrastructure to reinforce the e-Government plans in the country. Bahrain by using this network, which has been consistently upgraded and modernized, current links government agencies through an advanced network of Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, infra-red laser, and microwave technologies.
3.1 EDUCATION
The Ministry of Education has applied information and communication technology (ICT) in the teaching process in the primary education. Initially this project was applied in 8 primary school since 2001/2002, but during the 2002/2003 period it was expanded to 47 primary schools for boys and girls. In 20 schools computer laboratories have been equipped with computers, computer for teachers and technicians in each school. The number of PCs in Bahrain Schools exceeded 7,500, were are available for all students at all stages. Every School in Bahrain has at least 3 Computers connected with the Internet (Ministry of Education, 2003) with the aim of reaching 12 connected PCs for each school.
The Ministry of Education in 2001 put advance an ICT Plan, and in teamwork with UNESCO, the Bahrain Government formed a National Taskforce headed by H.E. the Minister of Education as a central point to implement the recommendations of UNESCO the King Hamad’s Schools is one of the most important outcomes. The objective of the project is to invest in the improvement of ICT in the educational meadow to raise the standards of education. The first stage of the project will supply 11 schools with advanced ICT infrastructure and with the Cooperation of Batelco, the schools will be connected together. Also, the main objective of the project to set up an educational portal to give e-learning services.
3.2 HEALTHCARE
Bahrain e-government through the MOH is drive spearheading the single most ambitious and costly project, the cost of running this project is BD20 million ($53 million) which approved in September 2001. For that government use the Strategic Health Information System which let clinics, physicians and health officials to share healthcare related information and have instant access to tens of thousands of update medical records over an intranet and internet. In April 2002, the project was launched, and it will pass via four phases over a period of six years.
In 2003 phase one, was completed which, listening carefully on setting up a new infrastructure and vital health information services. After historical data are retrieved and new applications installed, existing legacy systems are being replaced. Following phases will deal with patient records and other end products before the entire medical information system is made available online./p>
The Ministry of Health in addition to online directories, it maintains a website (www.moh.gov.bh) where forms can be completed and submitted online. There are number of hospitals in Bahrain use IT in developing health administration.For example, the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) Hospital, implemented the Oracle Collaboration Suite in early 2004. According to BDF, One of the means incentives behind the project, was the ability of the application to consolidate the hospital’s communication requirements around a single server, through it they can reducing costs and decreasing the affect on network bandwidth. (Source: Ministry of Health website www.moh.gov.bh).
Table 4: Bahrain Health Sector Statistics 2005
| Health Services | 4 |
| Government Hospitals | 6 |
| Private Hospitals | 6 |
| Government Health Centers | 21 |
| Government Maternity Hospitals | 5 |
| Total Doctors | 1189 |
| Total Beds | 1912 |
| Total Public Expenditure on Health | 4 |
| As % of Government Expenditure | 7.4 |
Source: Bahrain Government Website (www.bahrain.gov.bh) & Ministry of Finance and National Economy.
3.3 MINISTRY OF INTERIOR
The Ministry of Interior, which are the Directorate of Traffic, and General Directorate of Immigration and Passports, are developing applications where online services for traffic and visa processing could be made available.
3.4 MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Bahrain available website for their citizen which called (www.commerce.gov.bh) is currently considered one of the first websites providing online delivery of government services such as commercial registration and its renewal. For example, the website’s One Stop Shop for Business feature allows business owners to renew, update, amend or cancel their commercial licenses online.
4.5 E-GOVERNMENT PLANS
E-government of Bahrain setting future plans to develop their action, through that the government is aggressively adopt automation and modernization initiatives developed efficiency, attract direct foreign investment, and set up Bahrain as a center of ICT excellence. Through this strategy, the government has placed focus on promoting open-source methodologies. In the course of a public private partnership, these technologies are being used to form the spinal column of the Government Data Network. In totaling, initiatives are happening to incorporate Linux into the curricula in the national university.
5. CHALLENGES FOR GCC E-GOVERNMENT
According to (InfoDev, 2002) E-government needs a coherent strategy, at first time they should examine of the nation’s political will, resources, regulatory environment, and capability of the population to make use of planned technologies. GCC adopted strategy in relation to e-Government are very little and immediate at best. They does not adopt comprehensive IT-enabled governance plans but they are mostly configured as information technology plans. GCC countries do not have a grave effort to articulate a clear idea for reforming or transforming government via ICT. They just concern about technology solutions is driven by a bureaucratic culture, citizen just obey and government practice the authority, and citizen not shared in decision making (InfoDev, 2002).
Flourish about e-government milestones and achievements in citizen or customer-centric government; this is called by media reports, conference and seminars. However most tend to look and sound like vendor sales pitches with strong political undertones. But media does not usually present is how these strategies are arranged; who is concerned? And how these strategic are complete? Without a doubt sound strategies cannot but come from a sound strategy making process as is the in Europe case.
Bahrain is considered to had a strategic plan in place to increase first a government data network and to later transform into its current e-Government operation. Bahrain strategic information system project which extent five years from 1993 to 1998 was paying attention on increasing a government data network based on open computing standards. In 2001 it was followed by an e-Government strategy which was mostly concern on laying down an ICT infrastructure for delivery of government on-line services. Bahrain with its infrastructure almost completed now after the introduction of the smart card, the center of Bahrain’s e-government is changing to e-services, which includes tow points adoption of currently available services and the progress of new services that could be achieved by the existing infrastructure.
Nevertheless e-Government of Bahrain’s cannot be faulted on infrastructural grounds, tough it still lacks an overarching social vision of resident inclusion and participation, let alone government change with citizen participation. The current strategy that used by Bahrain does not appear to go beyond the delivery of services on-line. There is hardly any mention anywhere how, beyond the seamless provision of services, government is being altered to secure a bigger involvement of people. Whatever government change will come into effect will be as a outcome of the enabling power of ICT, essentially via reengineering government processes towards delivering customer-centric services. The existence of a vital authority, the CIO, is the main drive for Bahrain achievement relatively to the other Gulf countries is which has been planning Bahrain national ICT infrastructure for a long period of time prior to devising an e-Government strategy. However the CIO being principally an IT unit cannot be accountable for higher-order goals of e-government such as government alteration for more clearness and accountability, which stay within the political kingdom.
GCC countries in the region are faced with challenges that the same as challenges that facing countries worldwide, such as challenge is access and usage. No dependable data is obtainable to measure usage levels, but they are usually consideration to be low, particularly within the government to customers sector. According to (Davis, 2005), the trouble of small usage however is not suitable to the region, for example, the British which is regularly ranked in the top 10 for its e-government performance and with nearly 100% of government services online by the end of 2005 still suffers a modest 20% usage level. The same is for access, the GCC countries has a world standard infrastructure for Internet and e-government access. According to (Abbassi, 2005),Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Kuwait are the broadband influential in the Arab World, while Saudi Arabia is considered to be a main broadband market waiting to happen.
6. CONCLUSION
According to the data obtainable the E-Readiness in Bahrain has raised 15%, from 2000-2007, hence for Kuwait a 25% rise for the similar period. From period 2000-2007, the Internet Usage 46.6% raise for Kuwait, but for Bahrain 38.7% raise of internet usage for the similar period. The ministry Site’s development for both countries are almost the similar, hence Kuwait is advancing more in the internet usage. This is because Kuwait population raises more than Bahrain in the last five years and it has the better economic conditions.