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Source:
www.ida.gov.sg |
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Government Electronic Services Are
Gaining Popularity Among Singaporeans |
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IRAS E-Filing; My CPF Online Services; Job
Matching Service Application; and Community Centre Activity Registration. If
these services sound familiar to you, you are likely to be among one of the
infocomm savvy population that transacts electronically1 with the
government. |
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In 2004, more than half the population in
Singapore (57%) transacted with the government. This is released in the latest
e-Government Perception Survey by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Infocomm
Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). |
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The latest survey shows that of those who
transacted with the government, nearly 9 out of 10 transact at least once with
the Government electronically in the past 12 months. This is a notable finding
in this year's survey, as this garnered a 15% increase from 73% in 2003 to 88%
in 2004. |
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Government electronic services also fared well in
service quality, where 8 out of 10 Singaporeans2 who transacted
electronically with the Government are satisfied with the overall quality of
electronic services. |
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Other Survey Findings |
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To date, there are about 1,600 Government online
services made readily available to the public via the Singapore Government
Online portal. |
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These include electronic services from filing of
income tax to registering for a company. Through the various awareness and
promotional efforts initiated in 2004, the survey shows 7 out of 10 of the
total population have read or heard of at least three Government electronic
services. |
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The three most cited Government electronic
services highlighted in the survey are Filing of income tax; Requesting for
CPF Statement and Encashing or topping up of Economic Restructuring Shares. |
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The survey also indicated that the remaining 12%
Singaporeans who transacted with the government through non-electronic means
did so via counters, post or fax. |
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Findings showed that this group of people does not
see the need to use Government electronics services and prefers personal
contact. This group of the population includes housewives, retirees and
blue-collar workers. |
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Moving forward, we will increase awareness and
spur adoption through promotional programmes. To enhance satisfaction of
electronic service delivery, users can look forward to better search
facilities and user-friendly online services. |
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Promotional Programmes to Increase Awareness
and Spur Adoption |
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To further spur adoption and encourage
Singaporeans to transact with the government electronically, IDA and the MOF
have developed a year-long consumer education campaign that will include
educational advertisements through print and outdoor communication medium. The
campaign aims to encourage usage of government electronic services as it
brings ease and convenience to online users. |
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As part of the campaign, a joint promotion by IDA,
MOF and NETS will be organised from July to December this year. During this
six-month promotion, online users will stand a chance to win attractive prizes
when they make government payments online via two modes of payment under the
eNETS payment infrastructure. |
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The two modes of online payment include credit
card and direct debit3. Online users can look forward to bagging
home prizes sponsored by NETS, which include iPOD mini and HP notebooks in the
weekly and monthly draws respectively. A 42" Plasma TV is also in the line-up
for the grand prize draw in December. |
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Commenting on the survey results, Mr Fong Yong
Kian, Director of Managing for Excellence, Ministry of Finance said, "We are
encouraged by the results achieved so far and we will continue to improve the
users' experience with government electronic services. This is part of our
efforts to transform public service delivery so that our citizens and
customers can enjoy even more accessible and easy-to-use online services." |
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Ms Wu Choy Peng, Deputy Chief Executive of the IDA
and Government Chief Information Officer added, "Through the promotion with
NETS, IDA hopes to encourage more Singaporeans to go online to access
government information and services. This is convenient for individuals and
businesses. This promotion with NETS is in-line with our e-Government strategy
to increase awareness and convenient access to electronic services." |
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Ms Poh Mui Hoon, Chief Executive Office of Network
for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte Ltd said, "We are confident this
promotion will encourage more Singaporeans to make their government payments
in the convenient, secure and stable eNETS online payment environment. |
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This initiative is an extension of NETS' core
objective of providing solutions that make peoples' daily lives easier and, I
hope, will consolidate NETS' status as Singapore's favourite way to pay." |
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Please refer to Annex A for details on survey
findings, Annex B for benefits of using government electronic services and
Annex C on some examples of the e-services with eNETS payment. |
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More..... (Annexes) |
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JOINTLY ISSUED BY INFOCOMM
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE, MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND NETS SINGAPORE PTE
LTD |
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1 Electronic means include the
Internet, kiosk, Interactive Voice Response System, e-mail, SMS, etc.
Non-electronic means on the other hand refers to transaction via counters,
post, fax, phone, etc. 2 The
survey respondents include Singapore citizens and permanent residents who are
15 years old and above.
3 Credit card includes payment
online with users' credit card (Visa, Mastercard and AMEX). For the IDA, MOF
and NETS promotion, payment via AMEX is not applicable.
Direct Debit refers to making online payment with users' internet banking
account with DBS (includes POSB), UOB and Citibank. |
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Source:
Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore Press Release 8 Jun 2005 |
9 out of 10 use Government electronic services
