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1. Introduction
Since the advent of a worldwide revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs), across the world, 173 of 190 countries use ICTs, particularly the Internet as a tool to deliver government services ([11] Gant, 2008) in order to enhance their public services and increasing their efficiency in terms of accessing information and transaction services ([11] Gant, 2008; [21] OECD, 2003; [28] Song, 2004). The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are no exception. In 2000, all ASEAN member states - Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - endorsed the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement to promote co-operation to develop, strengthen and enhance the competitiveness of the ICT sector in ASEAN, reduce the digital divide within individual ASEAN economies and amongst member states, as well as between the public and private sectors to realise the e-ASEAN vision, and to liberalise trade and investment in ICT to support the e-ASEAN initiative ([3] ASEAN, 2000). The agreement rest on six pillars ([3] ASEAN, 2000):
Establishment of ASEAN information infrastructure.
Facilitation of growth of electronic commerce.
Liberalisation of trade and investments in ICT products and ICT services.
Facilitation of trade in ICT products and ICT services.
Capacity building and e-society.
e-Government.
To reach the vision of e-ASEAN initiative, especially in the e-Government pillar, governments of the ASEAN member states have launched several significant national e-Government initiatives in recent years. Some selected examples of e-Government initiatives in certain ASEAN member stats are given below.
In Malaysia, the government has launched the multimedia super corridor (MSC). One of the MSC flagship applications is e-Government. According to [19] MSC (2008), the main objective of e-Government flagship application is to enhance government service delivery. It was launched to lead the country into the information age. It will improve both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement. It has seven pilot projects: project management system (SPPII), human resource management information system (HRMIS), generic office environment (GOE), electronic...