The progressive digitalisation of economies and societies is transforming relations between citizens and the public sector, changing how the public sector works and delivers services. Citizens’ expectations of public sector efficiency and service quality have increased substantially, influenced by their experience of top private service providers. Governments need to deliver services that are simple, convenient, inclusive, collaborative and tailored to citizens’ life conditions or preferences. A factor that can significantly improve government interaction with citizens and businesses is integrated service delivery, via national online portals that combine data, information, systems, processes and services and provide a single point of access to government services.
Nine out of ten SEA countries have established a main national citizens’ online portal, the only exception being Lao PDR. Malaysia and Myanmar have the most comprehensive national citizens’ portal, though Myanmar’s portal is very new. In both countries, portals offer access to: government services provided by the authority responsible for the portal; unique services on behalf of responsible authorities, acting as a service delivery “shell”; services found through specific websites of the responsible authorities; and links to online services provided elsewhere, at responsible authorities’ own websites. The national citizens’ portal in Brunei Darussalam provides the same services, except unique services on behalf of responsible authorities. In the Philippines, the only service the portal does not offer is access to services provided by the authority in charge of the portal. All other SEA countries with a national online portal only have one or two features of the four listed above.
The national online portals in all SEA countries are faring better than those in OECD countries, according to the survey results, although the OECD data reflect the situation in 2014. For example, 80% of the portals in SEA provide links to other services provided by other websites, which is higher than the OECD average of 72%. Moreover, in SEA countries, 50% of the citizens’ portals offer access to services provided by other government authorities in their own websites, compared to 44% in OECD countries. This may, in part, reflect the advantages of a later start (fewer legacy systems, more mature technologies and new ICT tools), but it may also reflect stronger co-ordination ICT mechanisms.
A legally recognised digital identification mechanism provides citizens with access to multiple government online services through the national citizens’ portal. While 96% of OECD countries have a legally recognised digital mechanism in place, the figure for SEA countries is lower, at 70%. Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar do not have one. In both OECD and SEA countries, it is most common for the digital identification mechanism to be used for public services provided at the central/national government level. However, across all SEA countries, with the exception of Malaysia, this digital identification mechanism is not yet fully integrated with the national online portal for public services.
The use of a digital identification mechanisms varies across SEA countries. For example, Singapore’s digital identification mechanism, SingPass (Singapore Personal Access) acts as a gateway for citizens to access hundreds of digital services provided by more than 60 government agencies. Singapore Corporate Access (CorpPass) is a corporate digital identity (e.g. for businesses and non-profit organisations), to transact online with government agencies. Taking Korea as an example from the region, the Korean G-FIDO (Government Fast Identity Online) builds on the country’s long digital identity experience and aims to introduce common ground for diverse means of verification, including biometrics.
