E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies

E- government is what we known as the electronic government is the use of information and communication technology in the government administration. Malaysia is also one of the countries that introduce the e-government policy. E-government is mainly implemented to provide and improve the government and public services, transactions and interactions with the people, businesses and other arms of the government. By introducing the e-government, it will be a way for the Malaysia administration to be more open and transparent, allowing more democratic participation and providing more inclusive and exclusive services to the people in Malaysia.

When Malaysia introduced the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996, the government has started to implement the e-government in the administration to lead the nation to a technology world. Basically, e-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. The purpose of it is to jump start and boost the growth of MSC, enhance the national competitiveness in the world and many more.

Under the e-government, there are 7 main projects identified to be the main of the e-government applications.

1. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
2. Electronic Procurement (eP)
3. Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS)
4. Project Monitoring System (PMS)
5. Electronic Services Delivery (eServices)
6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
7. E- Syariah

1. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
The purpose of the GOE is to use the multimedia information technology to provide an integrated, efficient and effective office environment for the workers. By doing so, the workers can fully utilized the system that they have to create a more efficient communication between the workers plus ensuring right information reaching the right people in a timely manner.

Under the GOE project there are 3 phases which consists of Pilot Phase, Operational Review Phase and Rollout Phase.
Pilot phase - system will be developed and implemented in the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and other Ministers office.
Operational Review Phase – Performance of the suppliers will be reviewed and for extension to all other agencies
Rollout Phase – system is being rollout to other government agencies with focus on moving the Ministries to Putrajaya.

In my opinion, Malaysia has implement all the 3 phases and it has been bring out smoothly and successfully as most of the ministries has move to Putrajaya.

2. Electronic Procurement (eP) Project
The purpose of the project is to restructure and transform the current procurement system into a more efficient system. The project include central contract, tender and direct purchase. With the implementation of eP, the government hope that it will increase transparency, saves time and reduce cost. Besides that, it also encourages suppliers to go online.

In my opinion, from what I see is that the government has done this part quite well and most of the things now are computerized such as paying our personal tax, cukai tanah, renewing passports and others. However, more improvement is needed.

3. Human Resource management Information System (HRMIS)
HRMIS main objective is to provide single interface for government servants to perform human resources functions effectively and efficiently in an integrated environment. It also help to standardize all human resource processes for federal, state, statutory body and other local authority services. Besides that, they also provide transactional functions like leave application, loan processing and selection of employees.

The project was started in 1999 however due to certain issues, the project only being completed in 2006. So, for the time being in year 2009, the project is well implemented in the government administration.

4. Project Monitoring system (PMS)
PMS is a system designed that provide a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of government projects in Malaysia. The service also provides a platform for exchanging ideas and demonstrating best practices models in information management and communication services. Usually, the system will monitor projects like e-government projects, five years development plan projects such as Iskandar Development Malaysia, Northern Corridor Economic Region, East Coast Economic Region and others.

The system was first implemented in 1998 which monitor some of the Malaysia’s Seventh Development Plan projects. Later on, it was expanded to federal agencies throughout the country. At the moment, the post implementation activities are still going on such as assessment of additional Project Monitoring System (PMS) II and other new activities too.

5. Electronic Services Delivery (eServices)
eServices project is a project hat allows the Malaysian citizen to involve in transactions with government and utilities payments. The include payment of road tax, personal tax, house electricity bill, PTPTN loan and many more. The payment usually will be done through internet or the kiosk machines.

Basically there are 3 phases under eServices project. The first phase includes the electricity, water and summons payment services which are only focus in Klang Valley. The second phase is where the payment services are extended to the whole nation including Sabah and Sarawak. Up to now the first and second phase has completed. However, the third phase which is the vehicle registration and MOH information services Proof-of-Concept is still in progress.

6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
The purpose of ELX is to improve the mobilization of human resources and fully utilized the government servants through a systematic matching of job seekers towards the job vacancies available in the government administration. The Ministry of Human Resources is playing a vital role in the project.

The project was started in November 2000 and it is completed in 14 months. Until February 2005, about 11 thousand people are looking for job and almost 500 employers were registered. A total of almost 3500 vacancies posted resulting in around 21000 jobs matched. This show that the project is a success as the outcome is positive.

7. E-Syariah
The E-Syariah was firstly introduced in 2002. The project is to improve the quality of service in Syariah courts where they allow the judges to access into past cases and have all the information that they need for a particular case quicker than before.
Up to 2005, the project is 92% completed and the now the project is fully completed.

As we can see from the above, the government has implement a lot of projects for the convenience and benefit of the people and nation, therefore, we as a citizen of Malaysia, we are encourage to use the e-government services as it gives us a lot of benefits and convenience. I’m sure that most of the people will think that the online service is too risky as our personal data may be hacked by outsiders. It is normal to think so but I believe that the government is trying their best to ensure that all the users’ data is being kept properly. Therefore, try it out so that citizen will be realizing the benefit of the service.

• http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
• http://www.malaysia.gov.my/EN/Pages/default.aspx
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Government