Belarus turned out to occupy position 55 in the United Nations E-Government Survey 2014

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has recently published another ranking according to the level of E- Government development, United Nations e-Government Survey 2014: E-Government for the Future We Want. As a rule, UN does such kind of researches once in two years. International experts estimate the level of E- Government development in 193 UN countries. Thus, according to the 2014 total list, Belarus is found in the first third of the list, occupying position 55. But just 2 years ago the Republic was found 6 positions lower (position 61). It is interesting to note that among the leading countries (positions 1, 2 and 3) according to the level of E- Government development South Korea, Australia and Singapore are found. France got position 4, while the Netherlands got 5. The top ten also included Japan, USA, UK, New Zeeland and Finland.
Position of our closest neighbors and territorial members of the Customs Union turned out to be the following: Estonia – position 15, Russia still keeps position 27 (just like 2 years ago), Kazakhstan – 28 (position 38 in 2012, 10 positions up), Lithuania – 29, Latvia – 31, Poland – 42, Ukraine – 87 (position 68 in 2012, 21 positions down).
It is necessary to say, that UN Member States in the given list follow each other depending on the the calculated value of the composite index E-Government Development Index (EGDI). EGDI is the arithmetic mean of the three main sub-indices, which from the point of view of experts are considered to be the most important aspects of e-government in a particular country: Online Service Index (OSI), Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII), Human Capital Index (HCI).
Thus, EGDI is a composite indicator normalized on the basis of which it is possible to accurately determine the willingness and ability of governments to use information and communication technologies and communication technologies for the provision of public services. In the Table 1 below we give current EGDI values and three sub-indices (OSI, TII, HCI) for the top ten countries in the world in decreasing order, and for some other countries, including the Republic of Belarus itself and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), relatively close to her from the point of view of the economic development, and the CIS.
Table 1: Values of the index and sub-indices EGDI OSI, TII, HCI for some states of the world, 2014
Страна Position in UN EGDI Survey E-Government Development Index , EGDI Online Service Index, OSI Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII Human Capital Index, HCI
South Korea 1 0.9462 0.9764 0.9350 0.9373
Australia 2 0.9103 0.9291 0.8041 0.9978
Singapore 3 0.9076 0.9921 0.8793 0.8515
France 4 0.8938 1.0000 0.8003 0.8812
The Netherlands 5 0.8897 0.9291 0.8175 0.9224
Japan 6 0.8874 0.9449 0.8553 0.8621
USA 7 0.8748 0.9449 0.7406 0.9390
United Kingdom 8 0.8695 0.8976 0.8534 0.8534
New Zealand 9 0.8644 0.8425 0.7506 1.0000
Finland 10 0.8449 0.7717 0.8594 0.9037
Estonia 15 0.8180 0.7717 0.7934 0.8889
Russia 27 0.7296 0.7087 0.6413 0.8388
Kazakhstan 28 0.7283 0.7480 0.5749 0.8619
Lithuania 29 0.7271 0.7559 0.5697 0.8557
Latvia 31 0.7178 0.7008 0.6237 0.8288
Hungary 39 0.6637 0.5591 0.5654 0.8668
Slovenia 41 0.6505 0.4252 0.6193 0.9072
Poland 42 0.6482 0.5433 0.5618 0.8396
Montenegro 45 0.6346 0.5276 0.5481 0.8279
Croatia 47 0.6282 0.4646 0.6271 0.7928
Slovakia 51 0.6148 0.4882 0.5296 0.8265
Czech Republic 53 0.6070 0.3701 0.5653 0.8755
Belarus 55 0.6053 0.3228 0.6069 0.8861
Armenia 61 0.5897 0.6142 0.3889 0.7660
Romania 64 0.5632 0.4409 0.4385 0.8100
Moldova 66 0.5571 0.5276 0.4236 0.7201
Azerbaijan 68 0.5472 0.4331 0.4605 0.7480
Serbia 69 0.5472 0.3937 0.4681 0.7796
Bulgaria 73 0.5421 0.2362 0.5941 0.7960
Ukraine 87 0.5032 0.2677 0.3802 0.8616
Macedonia 96 0.4720 0.2441 0.4521 0.7198
Bosnia and Herzegovina 97 0.4707 0.2835 0.3998 0.7288
Uzbekistan 100 0.4695 0.4488 0.2333 0.7264
Kyrgyzstan 101 0.4657 0.2756 0.3801 0.7413
Turkmenistan 128 0.3511 0.0866 0.2189 0.7478
Tajikistan 129 0.3395 0.0630 0.2306 0.7249
As it is seen from the given statistics, the absolute leader in the breadth and quality of online services is France, the level of development of telecommunications infrastructure – South Korea, and the index of human capital – New Zealand.
One can see that the weakest point for Belarus is the breadth and quality of the provision of online services. For example, in Armenia the same figure (0.6142), is almost twice higher than in Belarus (0.3228), which is very surprising, as the level of development of telecommunications infrastructure in the country is almost 1,5 times worse than in Belarus (0.6069 vs. 0.3889).
Finally, let’s compare, what changes, positive or negative, according to the results of 2012 and 2014 index EGDI and sub-indices OSI, TII, HCI have undergone for the Republic of Belarus.
Table 2: Values of the index and sub-indices EGDI OSI, TII, HCI for the Republic of Belarus, 2012 and 2014
Беларусь Position in UN EGDI Survey E-Government Development Index , EGDI Online Service Index, OSI Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII Human Capital Index, HCI
2012 61 0.6090 0.4118 0.5033 0.9120
2014 55 0.6053 0.3228 0.6069 0.8861
Changes + / - + 6 - 0.0047 - 0.0890 + 0.1036 - 0.0259 The second table gives plenty of food for thought. The most surprising thing is the fact that for two years, reporting an overall decline in the overall index EGDI minus 0.0047, the country still managed to move 6 positions up.
Practice shows that positive dynamics takes place owing to the fact that in recent years in Belarus government bodies paid attention only to the telecommunications infrastructure (TII). But such indicators as the breadth and quality of the provision of online services (OSI) and human development (HCI) have been neglected by the Belarusian authorities.
Perhaps, during the reported period due to this neglect two indicators OSI and HCI showed negative trends. Therefore, it must be noticed that, for example, saving the rate HCI at the same level for 2012 (0.9120), Belarus could have been a leader in it among the similar level development countries, being ahead of Slovenia in such cinditions.
And EGDI index could have been (0.4118 + 0.6069 + 0.9120) / 3 = 0,6436, which almost equals the result, reached by Poland (position 42).
With an OSI index value 0.3228 our country is among the outsiders today. So, from the 35 countries listed in Table 1, only Kyrgyzstan (0.2756), Ukraine (0.2677), Macedonia (0.2441), Bulgaria (0.2362), Turkmenistan (0.0866) and Tajikistan (0.0630) are behind us. If Belarus didn’t fail to reach the level of Kazakhstan on OSI, then the overall index EGDI, at best indicators 2012-2014, would be (0.7480 + 0.6069 + 0.9120) / 3 = 0.7559. And this is the level, reached by Belgium in 2014 (0.7564, 25th place). So, it leaves much to be desired.