1

Adopting E-government as a strategic tool for economic development: Insights from

Governmental websites in Egypt

Doaa M. Ayman1 & Riem Abdel – Azim

2

April 29, 2016

October University for Modern Science & Arts (MSA),

6th

of October city –Wahat Road, Giza Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Electronic Government services (E-government) play a vital role in measuring the economic

development in any country. Public administrations pursue online existence to provide services and

information to their stakeholders. Challenges in implementing these E-government services have

always been of great interest for research studies in the field. This explains why government websites

are under continuous evaluation, from different perspectives, worldwide. The Egyptian government

has acknowledged the importance of providing E-government services since 2004. By applying E-

government services amongst its public administration, the Egyptian government has been seeking

economic and social development. This research paper will provide a comprehensive evaluation of

the online progress of the Egyptian ministries using the five staged E-government Model outlined by

the United Nations- UN Web Presence Measurement Model (2001). The new application of the

model is considered the benchmark to evaluate the progress of these E-government websites.

Findings revealed that out of the thirty four ministries, and other government agencies functioning

under cabinet, in this administration, a total of four ministries have reached the ‗Transactional

presence‘, stage four, while fifteen ministries have reached the ‗Interactive Presence‘, stage three, in

the model provided. The remaining fifteen ministries are still in stage two, ‗Online Presence‘, and

stage one, ‗Emerging Presence‘ with no real services provided to the citizens. Finally, the results also

revealed that none of the governmental websites have reached the ‗Seamless Interaction‘, stage five.

Thus, the Egyptian government websites are considered an undeveloped websites. They are still

incapable of effectively interacting or delivering services to the citizens. Furthermore, reaching the

‗Seamless Interaction‘ stage is foreseen as unattainable in the near future.

Key words: E -Government, Stage Model, Egypt, Economic development

1 Assistant Lecturer at October University for Modern Science and Arts, doaaayman@msa.eun.eg

2 Assistant Lecturer at October University for Modern Science and Arts, rabdelazim@msa.eun.eg

2

1. Introduction:

Developing countries started to work heavily on enhancing the communication and

information technology sector (ICT) to enable their development (McBride & Stahl 2009). E-

government services have become a very important tool for economic development and poverty

eradication where the development of interactive governmental websites can easily contribute to

solving the large administrative problems existing in any developing country. Egypt, like any

other developing country, has huge administrative problems which hinder the necessary

developmental progress required, among these problems; Management inefficiency, poorly –

trained personals, bureaucracy, and corruption (Abdelakader, 2015). Therefore; E-government

services are seen as a solution for these administrative problems and a tool for economic

development (AL –Mamari et al., 2013).

However; developing efficient strategies for establishing an electronic government has

been regarded as one of the challenges for developing countries. Lacking a strong Internet,

technological infrastructure, and the sufficient knowledge and skills required, are the main

reasons behind it (Fedorowicz, 2010).

The term electronic government was defined by different researchers and international

institutions and organizations, among them is the United Nations which explained it as ―

including virtually all information and communication technology (ICT) platforms and

applications in use by the public sector” (UN, 2002). The Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD) also described E-government as ―the use of ICT

particularly the internet, to achieve better government‖ (OECD, 2003).

Although, the definition of the term E-government differs from one organization to the

other, they all share the same concept that E-government improves the relationship between

citizens and their governments. This helps in promoting citizen`s empowerment, facilitating

communication, and delivering services easily. Thus, increasing the government`s efficiency,

transparency and accountability. E-government also facilitates the level of coordination within

the government`s agencies and departments (Fraga, 2002; UNPA and ASPA, 2001; Welch and

Hinant, 2003; United Nations, 2008, Al – Mamari, 2013).

3

E-government initiative created new communicating channels between citizens,

businesses and local government departments through facilitating service delivery, and providing

better access to information with less administrative procedures. In this context, E-government is

used as a tool for economic development and growth through promoting more democratic, less

centralized governments and less corrupted governments. If this E-government program, as

previously defined, is put into practice, reforms in different areas will take place (EL – Gohary &

Wahed, 2013).

However, most of the developing countries in general and Arab countries in particular –

except United Arab Emirates - did not give much attention to e – government implementation

methods, evaluation, and challenges despite its importance to citizen‘s satisfaction, service

delivery, and economic development. This is very obvious in literature and even in practice

where many countries lack clear e – government strategy (Gebba & Zakaria, 2012). Also,

research studies conducted on the Egyptian government focused on the developing ICT sector‘s

strategy, the Egyptian information society‘s strategy and the challenges facing E-commerce in

Egypt (Kamel and Hussein, 2002; Aladwani,2003; McBride and Stahl, 2009; United Nations,

2011; MCIT,2011). Very few research studies were implemented to evaluate the e-government

strategy, practices and challenges encountered in implementation.

Therefore; this research paper will fill in the gab required to have a comprehensive

evaluation of the online progress of the Egyptian governmental websites using for the first time

the five stages E-government model defined United Nations – UN Web Presence Measurement

Model (2001). The application of the UN Model will provide a benchmark to evaluate the

progress of these E-government websites in order to assess its development and its significant

impact on economic development.

The paper is organized in seven sections. The second section is the literature review that

discusses different E – government models used to assess the progress of government official

websites. Section three provides an overview of the E – government in Egypt and how it act as a

tool for economic development. In section four the five stages E – government model, research

methodology, and the results are introduced and discussed. Section five analyzes the challenges

4

and obstacles that prevent the successful implementation of E – government in Egypt. Finally,

section six presents the conclusion and the future research.

2. Literature review:

An E-government Portal‘s Maturity Model is a set of stages used to analyze the level at

which the government' portal had reached to identify the degree of interactions with its citizens

(Fath-Allah etal., 2014). This Research paper will address the evolutionary E-government stage

models presented in sequential steps to measure the maturity of the government‘s portal.

International organizations such as United Nations (UN, 2005; 2010) and European used

normative models to assess the level or stage of E-government implemented in different

countries. These models are known as ‗Stage Models‘ and are usually composed of 4 to 6

sequential stages. Nolan (1973) was the first to propose a stage model to present the effect of

adoption of information systems into organizations. However; in the last decades many

researchers and international organizations have participated in the developing of E-government

Stage Models such as ANAO & SAFAD models. The ANAO model (1999, 2000) was presented

by the Australian National Auditing Office to evaluate the governmental services delivered to the

citizens. This model is divided into four main stages. The First stage is Publishing Information. It

provides static information to the citizens with access to downloadable forms and applications.

The second stage is the Interaction stage where search for specific information is made available

through the use of internet. The third stage, transaction of secure information offers access to

secured information via subscription. Sharing Information with other Agencies is the fourth stage

where information is shared among different governmental agencies and departments.

The SAFAD model (2000) was developed by the Swedish Agency for Administrative

Development. The SAFAD model, influenced by the ANAO model, focused on providing 24/7

E-government services.

The United Nations and American Society For Public Administration (UNASPA) E-

government web evolution model and EU benchmarking model (UN, 2001; 2005; 2010;

Capgemini, 2007;2010) defined five stage model for E-government websites developments

5

where it specify the level of which the internet is used by different countries to deliver

information to its citizens. The levels differ from one country to another. The first stage is the

‗Emerging Presence‘ stage. Countries belonging to this stage have very few formal websites that

provide citizens with information. These websites may include contact information, e.g.

telephone numbers and addresses. Furthermore, there is no interaction or coordination between

ministries or governmental departments in these countries. The second stage is the ‗Enhanced

Presence‘ stage. Countries in this stage enhance their online presence through a more dynamic

and specialized information that is updated frequently. In addition, newsletters, publications, and

email addresses are provided. The third stage is ‘Interactive Presence‘ stage where the presence

of the government expands heavily. A more advanced level of interactions between citizens and

service providers is available. The citizens can search for specific information, download forms

and applications. The fourth stage is ‗Transactional Presence‘ in which citizens save time and

money through direct interaction with government departments. The government here is

providing online service 24/7. Citizens are allowed to obtain visa, passports, birth and death

records, license and other permits renewals through online payment. In addition, E-signature is

available to facilitate doing business with the government. Secure sites and user passwords are

also present. The Final stage is the ‗Seamless Presence‘ stage providing a one stop portal where

citizens can use all kinds of available services.

Another Model was provided by Layne and Lee in 2001. The model is also divided into four

stages. This model was influenced by previously presented models. The ‗Catalogue‘ stage

followed the ‗Publishing‘ stage presented in ANAO model in giving static information about the

government agency and its publications to citizens. The ‗Transactions‘ stage adapted the

‗Transactional Presence‘ stage in UN model in using online services such as renewing licenses

and paying bills. In this stage, a Vertical Integration is established to link between local and

higher agencies and Horizontal integration reflected linkage between all agencies in the same

level.

In 2002, Moon extended Layne & Lee`s (2001) model with a new fifth stage focusing on

political participation. Deloitte presented a six-stage model in 2001. He argued that the main

purpose of E-government is to build strong interactive and transparent relationship with citizens.

6

Deloitte‘s six-stage model is based on customer service perspective. Stage one the ‗Information

Publishing‘ stage, is similar to the first stage presented in the previous models. The second stage

is the ‗Official two-way Transaction. Stage three is ‗Multi-purpose Portals‘. The fourth stage is

Portal Personalization‘. The fifth stage is Clustering of common services; and finally stage six is

‗Full Integration and Enterprise Transaction‘.

Hiller and Bélange (Hiller, 2001) E-government model is divided into five stages:

‗Information‘ stage, which is the same as the first stage presented in the previous two models.

Only static information is offered about the agency and its publications. The ‗Two-way

Communication‘ stage invites communication between the government agency and citizens

through valid emails. The ‗Transactions‘ stage is the most advanced stage, in their view, where

citizens have access to many online services, such as, license renewal and paying taxes. The

fourth stage is the ‗Integration‘ stage which refers to the presence of single entry point to all the

services provided by the government. The final stage is ‗Political Participation‘ stage where

citizens are allowed to participate in the political process online through online voting.

Andersen and Henriksen's (2006) Public Sector Process Rebuilding (PPR) model is said to be

an extension of the Layne and Lee Model. They expanded their model to be more customer-

centric rather than just technologically oriented. Their model consisted of four stages.

Other researchers such as Siau & Long (2005) proposed a five stage model criticizing

previously mentioned stage models for missing the ‗Measuring Political Participation‘ stage.

Siau & Long (2005) model followed the first four stages model proposed by Gartner (2000);

however, the fifth stage, the ‗E-democracy‘ is the new stage that was not presented in the

previously mentioned models. According to them, the ‗E-democracy‘ stage is very important

stage for measuring the E-government services and should be fully integrated. In this stage,

citizens and businesses participate in the political process. The increasing rate of participation

will cope with the development process of the country.

7

3- E -Government in Egypt: A tool for economic development:

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) Launched the

Egyptian E-government program in 2001 as a part of the Egyptian Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy. In 2004, the program was transferred to the

Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) as an element of administrative

reform and development (Abdelsalam et al., 2012). This reflects the importance of

E-Government as an element of economic development and administrative reforms (Abdelsalam

et al., 2012). During the period 2001 – 2003 preparation and supporting initiatives were taken

place to launch the E–Government project such as launching free internet in 2002 to provide

every person with easy and affordable access to the internet. This is besides what the IT clubs

have launched in 2003 to facilitate the access to ICT even in underprivileged areas. Finally, in

January 2004, the government of Egypt announced the launching of its first official portal

www.egypt.gov.eg (MCIT, 2006). Some services were placed in the portal to pilot test the

project such as telephone e-billing, birth certificate, issuing, etc. (Azab et al., 2009).

The Egyptian E-government program was divided into two stages. Stage one was

implemented over the period from (2001 – 2007) in which setting and approving the strategic

plan which was the main issue. In addition, this stage witnessed geographical and sectorial

deployment of some projects. The second stage (2007 – 2012) focused on expanding pilot

projects on national level and development of government administrative body (Gebba &

Zakaria, 2012). The vision of the Egyptian E–government includes three main doctrines which

are: first, ―public – centric service delivery‖ where the government develops a one stop-shop e-

services approach reflecting citizens' needs and expectations. Second, ―Community

participation‖ where the needs of the citizens are continuously being analyzed and considered

which emphasizes the active participation of the private/public sector organizations in

E –government‘s implementation and management. And finally, ―Optimal utilization of

government resources‖ where the E –government program expected outcomes which would

enhance productivity, cost reduction, and efficient allocation of resources. This vision comes

aligned with the mission of ―introducing better governance‖ to reduce the cost and achieve better

efficiency (Gebba & Zakaria, 2012).

8

Currently, the MCIT is responsible for developing the information society in Egypt through

improving the infrastructure and policies required for the development of ICT, whereas MSAD is

responsible for public administration development and E –government (OECD, 2013). Despite

the fact that Egypt was a pioneer figure in launching its E -government program in 2000, Egypt‘s

E -government progress remains slow and uneven compared to other countries in the Middle

East to the extent that it was ranked far behind other Arab countries. This could be attributed to

several challenges and barriers that hinder the successful implementation of E -government

websites (see table one).

Table one: E –government ranking of selected countries in the Middle East.

Country 2012 ranking 2014 ranking

Bahrain 37 18

United Arab Emirates 28 32

Saudi Arabia 41 36

Qatar 48 44

Oman 64 48

Kuwait 63 49

Tunisia 103 75

Egypt 107 80

Morocco 120 82

Source: United Nations E –government Survey, 2014

Since the E-government research is a very new field, especially in most of the developing

countries, it is very difficult to evaluate the economic impact of E-government precisely with the

presence of weak investments in this field which, eventually, did not generate visible macro –

economic effects. Egypt, like any other developing countries, still lacks both research and

application of E –government, and this presents the cause for the incapability of measuring the

impact on macro level. However, we can still estimate the benefits of the E -government.

The main core of E -government is to provide one stop portal for its citizens to provide

them with the needed services online; therefore, it is assumed that E -government applications

9

will lead to cost reduction through downsizing of governments‘ officials and hence minimize the

transaction cost of different administrative procedures. However, empirical evidence has shown

that the expectations of direct cost reductions have not taken place in reality. For no clear reasons

the application of E -government did not lead to staff or administrative cost reduction. This was

attributed mainly to the strong resistance from the unions of government employees (Al –

Khateeb et al., 2015).

Egypt is facing critical problems which hinder its economic growth and hence economic

development, such as and not limited to overstaffed, highly corrupted government officials and

overlapping of goals between government and enterprise management as well. As a result, the

development of E -government projects in Egypt is considered very critical to its development

through the application of ICT to promote well-being and citizens‘ satisfactions which presents

the ultimate achievement of economic development (World Bank, 2010). Consequently; the

continuous development of the governmental websites is seen as an important tool towards

economic and social development since it will lead to less hierarchical suppression, less

bureaucracy and definitely less corruption, thus better service delivery to citizens (Wahed & EL

Gohary, 2013). In this context, E -government in Egypt should focus on administrative reforms

to be able to promote economic development; this administrative reform will lead to less

centralization and more efficient management and then economic development (Chung et al.,

2005)

4. The Model:

4.1 Research Methodology:

The study used qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the web development of

government websites in Egypt in order to assess the level of readiness of Egyptian government

websites and its impact on economic development. This approach is important as it provides

descriptive analysis to the degree of interaction that each government provides to its citizens

whereas different indicators are not enough to provide full scope of the level or degree of

implementation of the E –government.

10

Purposeful sampling was used in our research where the researchers set criteria for selecting

the websites that support our research objective. There are 34 ministries in Egypt and other

governmental agencies; some of which are under the direct supervision of the cabinet and others

are not; therefore, for the purpose of our research we have selected all ministries and those

agencies under the direct supervision of the cabinet ignoring the others. Moreover; the

researchers had divided the data analysis into two levels; level one was the assessment of the

governmental websites using a five stage E -government model defined by the United Nations.

In that level, the researchers had visited all the official government websites in the sample and

used a checklist to all the modeling elements in order to apply the model and evaluate the stage

that has been achieved by each governmental website. The researchers, in the second level, will

use the E -government indicators to analyze the trend of development of the E -government

implementation in Egypt.

4.2 Aim and Significance of the study:

Despite the importance mentioned about the E -government in literature, there is still lack of

research studies that evaluate and assess the progress and development of governmental websites

specifically in Egypt. The importance of this assessment stems from the fact that we are the first

to assess the significant impact of the E -government websites development on the range of

E -services delivered to citizens and hence on both social and economic development using a

five stage model.

4.3 The model:

Actually, all proposed models in the literature share the same features for the first three

stages. Stage one and two include the creation and the presence of the governmental web sites by

simply providing information to their citizens while stage three starts to provide a two-way

communication with very basic and simple interaction. Following those unified three stages each

model starts to differ implying more complexity in the transaction between the government and

its citizens. We believe that the five staged E -government model defined by the UN (2001) is of

a particular interest to our research as it explains what should be the final engines of any

E -governmental websites seeking full integration with its citizens in a way that promotes

efficiency and thus development.

11

The process of E -government evaluation depends on using the five staged E -government

model defined by United Nations – UN Web Presence Measurement Model (2001).

Stage I is referred to as ―Emerging Presence‖. To fall into this stage of E -government online

presence, there should be an official website for the country containing information about it and

there must be links for the country‘s ministries and departments such as health, education and so

on. This is a static and informative stage.

Stage II is the ―Enhanced Presence‖ where the government provides more information to

citizens on public policy and the government as well as other information such as reports and

regulations. All of which is easily and continuously accessible through archives. This stage is

dynamic and provides updated information.

Stage III is the ―Interactive Presence‖. In this stage, the government provides downloadable

forms for other services in order to enhance the ease and convenience of the service requester.

Simple a two-way communication with the ability to post comments online is also offered.

Stage IV is the ‗Transactional Presence‖. It took place when the government has started to

provide online services and allows citizens to access these services 24/7 in order to represent

G2C interactions. Examples of these services are applications online license renewals, obtaining

passports and updating birth certificates.

Stage V is the ‗Seamless stage‖. Governments activate back offices, that is to say, they have

transformed themselves into an online entity that meets their citizens‘ needs and can respond to

their citizens in easy and modern ways. Governments provide a one-stop portal where all kinds

of services are accessed online. Thus, it represents the most developed level of online

government initiatives and has the following characteristics:

a) Horizontal connections (among government agencies)

b) Vertical connections (central and local government agencies)

c) Infrastructure connections (interoperability issues),

12

d) Connections between governments & citizens.

e) Connections among stakeholders (Government, private sector, academic institutions, NGOs

and civil society)

4.4 Results:

Through browsing the Egyptian government websites for the purpose of evaluating their

readiness, we found that they are mostly located between stage II and III of the E -government

five stages model. Although the model shows that all ministries have an online presence, the

results have proved that more than 80% of the Egyptian governmental websites are information

provider rather than service provider. The results also showed that 11 government ministries

websites are currently at stage II which indicate enhanced presence only such as providing the

citizens with publications and news. On the other hand, there are 15 government ministries‘

websites at stage III which indicates that the interactive presence with citizens is by the facility

of sending emails to the official websites of the organizations and downloading applications with

no online real services provided.

Moreover, the survey, also, found that there are only 4 ministries that are placed at stage

IV which indicates transactional presence revealing that these government websites provide real

online services to its citizens such as Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Ministry of

Education and Technical Education, and Ministry of Interior Affairs. Finally, no government

web had reached Seamless stage (V) which indicates seamless or full integration (see table two).

13

Table (2): Online Survey of Egyptian Government websites

Authority

Em

ergin

g

presen

ce

En

ha

nce

d

presen

ce

Inte

ractiv

e

presen

ce

Tra

nsa

ction

al

Pre

sence

Sea

mless

presen

ce

En

glish

ver

sion

stag

e

URL

1 Egyptian government`s

portal

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes IV http://www.egypt.gov.eg/arabic/home.aspx

2 Electricity & renewable

energy

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes IV http://www.moee.gov.eg/english_new/home.aspx

3 Education and Technical

Education

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes IV http://portal.moe.gov.eg/Pages/default.aspx

4 Interior affairs Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes IV http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/english/

5 Commerce (Trade) and

Industry

Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.mti.gov.eg/english/index.htm

6 Communication and

Information Technology

Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.mcit.gov.eg/

7 Culture Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.moc.gov.eg/index.php?lang=en

8 State information service Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://sis.gov.eg/Ar/Default.aspx

9 Agriculture & land

reclamation

Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.agr-egypt.gov.eg/

10 Supply & internal trading Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.msit.gov.eg/ar/

11 Transportation Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.mot.gov.eg/

12 Water resources &

irrigation

Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.mwri.gov.eg/

13 Youth and sports Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.emss.gov.eg/

14 Housing Utilities &

Urban communities

Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.moh.gov.eg/

15 Local development Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.mold.gov.eg/arabic/default.htm

16 International Cooperation Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.moic.gov.eg/Front/About/ContactUs.as

px

17 Social Solidarity Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.moss.gov.eg/misa/ar-

eg/الصفحةالرئيسية.aspx

14

Authority

Em

ergin

g

presen

ce

En

ha

nce

d

presen

ce

Inte

ractiv

e

presen

ce

Tra

nsa

ction

al

Pre

sence

Sea

mless

presen

ce

En

glish

ver

sion

stag

e

URL

18 Local Administration Yes Yes Yes No No No III http://www.ad.gov.eg/Ar/Default.aspx

19 State for Environmental

affairs

Yes Yes Yes No No Yes III http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/

20 Planning Monitoring &

Administrative

Yes Yes No No No No II http://www.mop.gov.eg

21 Super supreme Council

for Antiquities

Yes Yes No No No Yes II http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/msa_contact.htm

22 Higher Education and

Scientific Research

Yes Yes Yes No No Yes II http://www.egy-mhe.gov.eg/en

23 Finance Yes Yes Yes No No Yes II http://www.mof.gov.eg/english/pages/home.aspx

24 Foreign affairs Yes Yes Yes No No Yes II http://www.mfa.gov.eg/English/Pages/default.aspx

25 Health & Population Yes Yes No No No No II http://www.mohp.gov.eg/default.aspx

26 Civil aviation Yes Yes Yes No No No II http://www.civilaviation.gov.eg/

27 Defense Yes Yes Yes No No No II http://www.mod.gov.eg/mod/

28 Justice* Yes Yes Yes No No No II http://www.jp.gov.eg/ar/Default.aspx

29 Tourism Yes Yes Yes No No Yes II http://en.egypt.travel

30 Manpower Yes Yes No No No No II http://www.manpower.gov.eg

31 Investment Yes Yes Yes No No Yes I http://www.investment.gov.eg/en/default.aspx

32 State for Military

Production*

Yes No No No No No I http://www.momp.gov.eg/Ar/

33 Petroleum and Mineral

Wealth

Yes No No No No No I http://www.petroleum.gov.eg/ar/Pages/default.aspx

34 Religious Endowments

(Awkaf)

Yes No No No No No I http://www.awkaf.org/

Source: Done by the Authors using the Model results

The online survey revealed that the degree of interaction between government and citizens is

very week with no real services provided online. Actually, only 12% of the governmental

websites provide real services to the citizens with special emphasis on the service provided by

the Egyptian government portal where citizens are allowed to submit online applications for

15

license renewals, obtaining passports, updating birth certificates and book for a train. In addition;

76% of the websites still fall in stage II and III which means that they are just informative

websites with no real services provided to the citizens. Figure one summarizes the percentages of

the websites‘ offered services according the number of government‘s organization in each stage.

Figure one: the percent of each Egyptian website at each stage in 2015

Source: Calculated by the author

The online survey results revealed that although being in the same stage, each ministry

has some variations in terms of ―Interaction and Transactional stages‖ (see table three). The

Egyptian government portal is the only portal that has the highest percentages (20%) in the four

stages which means that there are an online real services provided to the citizens including

electronic payment. The other government portals show huge variation in each stage especially

in the stage of transactional presence as the websites range from being fully transactional (20%)

as Egyptian government portal to being transactional but without providing any electronic

payments as the case in the Ministry of Electricity and the Ministry of Education (13%). The

other websites either lack any transactional presence (0%) or just provide electronic form lacking

any electronic services and payment (7%).

Table 3 summarizes the results for the percentages for the assessed websites in each of

the five stages.

Emerging presence

12%

Enhanced Presence

32%

Interactive Presence

44%

Transactional Presence

12%

Seamless 0%

16

Table (3): Summary of the assessed websites

Ministry Emerging

Presence

Enhanced

Presence

Interactive

Presence

Transactional

Presence

Seamless Total

Egyptian government portal 20% 20% 20% 20% 0% 80%

Electricity & Renewable energy 20% 20% 15% 13% 0% 68%

Education and Technical Education 16% 13% 10% 13% 0% 52%

Interior Affairs 12% 13% 15% 20% 0% 60%

Commerce (Trade) & Industry 16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

Communication & Information

Technology

12% 20% 20% 7% 0% 59%

Culture 12% 20% 15% 0% 0% 47%

State Information service 16% 20% 10% 0% 0% 46%

Agriculture & Land Reclamation 16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

Supply & Internal Trading 16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

Transportation 16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

Water Resources & Irrigation 16% 13% 5% 7% 0% 41%

Youth & Sports 16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

Housing Utilities & Urban

Constructions

16% 13% 10% 7% 0% 46%

State for Environmental affairs 16% 13% 15% 0% 0% 44%

Local Development 16% 13% 15% 0% 0% 44%

International Cooperation 12% 20% 15% 0% 0% 47%

Social Solidarity 12% 13% 15% 7% 0% 47%

Local Administration 16% 13% 10% 0% 0% 39%

Planning Monitoring &

Administration

12% 13% 5% 0% 0% 30%

Super Supreme Council for Antiques 16% 20% 0% 0% 0% 36%

Higher Education & Scientific

Research

16% 20% 5% 7% 0% 48%

Finance 16% 13% 0% 0% 0% 29%

17

Ministry Emerging

Presence

Enhanced

Presence

Interactive

Presence

Transactional

Presence

Seamless Total

Foreign Affairs 16% 20% 5% 7% 0% 48%

Health & Population 16% 13% 0% 0% 0% 29%

Civil aviation 16% 20% 5% 0% 0% 41%

Defense 16% 13% 5% 0% 0% 34%

Justice 16% 13% 0% 0% 0% 29%

Tourism 16% 20% 5% 0% 0% 41%

Manpower 12% 13% 5% 7% 0% 37%

Investment 16% 7% 5% 0% 0% 28%

State for Military Production 16% 7% 0% 0% 0% 23%

Petroleum & Mineral Health 16% 7% 0% 0% 0% 23%

Religious Endowment (Awkaf) 12% 7% 0% 0% 0% 19%

Source: Calculated by the author based on the model applied

In general, the results revealed that any governmental website that ranges from 20% -

28% has an online presence with no information or services provided to the citizens while the

websites that range from 29% - 41% has an emerging presence with limited interactive services

provided such as posting comments online or a two-way communication channels. On the other

hand, the websites that range from 49% to 59% has interactive presence, and finally those

websites with transactional presence have a range of 60% to 80%.

However, the analysis of the governmental websites using the checklist shows some

exceptions as some websites did really great concerning the current status they have reached. So,

the percentage of development is really advanced compared to other websites in the same stage

but cannot be upgraded to higher stage as they lack the main requirements of the following

stages for example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an enhanced presence (48%) which is

higher than the other websites in the same stage; this means that it fulfills all the requirements to

be located in the second stage, yet it still lacks all other requirements to be upgraded to stage

three. The same is true for the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (59%) as

18

it has higher percentage of integration compared to other websites in the same stage; however, it

also lacks the basic requirements to be upgraded to stage four such as E -payment and E -service.

The analysis done on the governmental websites using the UN five stage model findings

proved unsuccessful implementation of E -government in Egypt. This happens because whether

the citizens are unaware of the offered services or there are no services at all. Therefore, the

corruption and bureaucracy levels in Egypt are highly remarkable and hinder any progress for

development especially with different important ministries which did not provide any real online

service.

Although the Ministry of Tourism is one of the important ministries in Egypt due to the

significant importance of tourism industry to the Egyptian economy, it has no official online

presence (.gov). Instead, it has a different portal in which it provides the citizens with very

limited information, as a consequence the tourist especially international tourists cannot use the

official tourism website to book for a place to visit or a tour, in addition; the websites did not

announce any news about the political stability of the country and how tourism in Egypt is safe

to attract as much as possible of international tourists all over the world in which they are

considered one of the main sources of foreign currency. Therefore, the Ministry of Tourism

websites has no importance for the citizens; this causes a feeling of disappointment to the

citizens taking into consideration the significant importance of tourism to push growth and hence

encourages development in Egypt. The successful implementation of E – government should

overcome these problems as if the government provides tourists with epayment service for tours

and different touristic places the tourist will book all the places he wishes to visit online more

tourists will be encouraged to visit Egypt as they can plan their budget correctly feeling more

safe and secured.

In the same context, the Ministry of Transportation still in stage three ―interactive

presence‖ where the citizens can ask a question with two-way communication channels,

however; information about safety and maintenance on different transportation ways as roads,

and Maritime ports are not available this means that the website provide the citizens with some

basic information rather than the kind of information they are really searching for. Moreover; the

19

ministry did not provide any real interaction with other business entities (G2B) as they cannot

pay for any fees online for different licenses and permits finally no e – signature service is

provided so they can not submit any official paper online which again complicate business

environment in Egypt with more bureaucratic procedures are required.

The researchers did not reveal disappointing results regarding the Ministry of Tourism

website only, but also the results were surprisingly unexpected regarding the week performance

of the Ministry of Investment official website. The analysis placed the official website for the

Ministry of Investment in the second stage ―Enhanced Presence‖ which exposes the absence of

any interaction. This means that the investor cannot interact online with the ministry: asking

questions, two way communication channels, download forms, and finally no online payment is

available to the investors to pay for any needed transaction regarding starting a business in

Egypt. Consequently, no real services are provided to the investor. As a result, the investors have

to visit the Ministry to get the required services and information, waiting in the queue and face

the endless bureaucracy in Egypt. According to the ease of doing business report, Egypt Ranked

(175th

) out of 189 economies which indicate how long it takes the investor to finish the

documents required to open a business in Egypt which could be easier to do all these transactions

online and hence forth, to boost the economic development in Egypt.

Finally, another disappointing result was that considering the Ministry of Manpower

official website where the citizens are not able to communicate with the government as the

website did not enable the citizens to leave a comment, ask a question or even download forms.

This is due to the lack of a two-way communication channels. These were really surprising

results regarding the large percentage of population in the labor force and the huge number of

migrants living abroad who need a link with the Manpower officials.

The results of the UN five–stage model applied on the Egyptian government websites

came along with the UN E -government online survey 2014. Despite the improvement in the E -

government ranking in 2014 compared to 2012, the E -government services uptake are very low

with only 11.3% of the citizens are aware of the existence of the electronic government services

(UN E – Government online survey, 2014).

20

The results also came along with the Networked readiness Index (NRI). Egypt ranked in

91st place; a decline of 11 positions despite a slight improvement in individual ICT uptake (71st).

In general, Egypt continues to lag behind other Arab countries in terms of developing its ICT

infrastructure (99th). ICT uptake by government is average (42nd) with less than half of its

population using the Internet (75th)—and businesses in their interaction with other businesses

(81st) and consumers (70th) remain average (World Economic Forum, 2014). Table four

summarizes the most important NRI pillars that face the successful implementation in 2014.

Table (4): Networked Readiness Index pillars ranking in 2014

NRI pillars NRI rank 2014

(Out of 148 country)

Political and regulatory environment 115

Business and innovation environment 117

Infrastructure and digital content 99

Affordability 16

Skills 120

Individual usage 71

Business usage 112

Government usage 113

Economic Impacts 59

Social impacts 65

Source: World Economic Forum, 2014

According to the NRI, the government usage pillar proved that E -government

implementation in Egypt faces a lot of challenges and obstacles where out of 148 countries,

Egypt recorded week performance regarding its E -government implementation as the

importance of ICTs to government vision (141st), Government success in ICT promotion (131

st)

and finally the government Online Service Index (32nd

). Consequently, this leads to

unremarkable economic and social impacts; the economic impact of E -government usage is

unnoticeable as seen by the week impact of ICTs on new services and products (101st), the

degree of usage of ICT on business organizations (78th

), and the Knowledge intensive jobs % of

21

workforce (35th

). In the same context, the social impacts reveal really bad situation in Egypt

where internet access in schools (125th

), with no real access to the basic services (92nd

) (world

Economic Forum, 2014)

5. Obstacles and Challenges:

E -government websites in Egypt can be classified as in the early stages of development.

The websites are available with online presence; however, with no real service provided to the

citizens. There are several problems and obstacles that prevent successful implementation of

E -government in Egypt which can be categorized from social, economic and technological

perspectives.

5.1 The lack of E -signature Mechanism:

The lack of comprehensive e -signature framework is considered one of the main important

legal challenges for successful E -government implementation. Actually, the lack of secured

e -signature mechanism has hindered the progress of some electronic services in Egypt such as

tax documents completion and submission, online payment of taxes, and other services that

require signature. Therefore; government officials have to work on the development of a secure

e -signature mechanism in order to fully utilize the benefits of E -governments and to accelerate

the process of documents submission without the need to physically visit the ministry or the

institute for documents completion. In addition, the uncertainty about privacy protection is also

needed to be insured by the government where the citizens who are aware by the benefits of

E -government feel safe, secured and protected.

5.2 The lack of E -payment transactions:

The electronic payments framework in Egypt still is not widely used by citizens due to the

low penetration of credit cards – used only by middle class income – and many of those card

holders feel unsecured for paying online and prefer to pay in cash even if it means going to the

institute immediately and waiting for hours in long queues. In addition, Egypt lacks many online

payment tools such as pre – paid cards and credit cards with small limit in the hands of the poor.

22

5.3 Computer illiteracy and Low rate of internet access:

The low internet access rate in Egypt is considered as another important challenge that

counteracts the progress of E -government implementation in Egypt. The Internet penetration

rate in Egypt reached 31.17% in 2014 which is considered a low percentage compared to other

countries. However, although the number of people who access internet through mobile phones

has increased significantly in the last two decade, the number of people who use their PCs to

access the internet ,and thence is most likely to use E -government services, is still very low due

to the high rate of computer illiteracy in Egypt. This deters the progress of the E –government.

This means that very small percentage of people are actually benefiting from the e -services

provided by the government ministries and entities (MCIT, 2016).

5.4 Employees Resistance:

The bureaucratic obstacles cannot be ignored while we are analyzing the main obstacles and

challenges that delay the successful implementation of the E -government in Egypt. Employees‘

resistance to change could lead to the government failure of providing any e -services

(Abdelkader, 2015). This resistance might be attributed to the fear of change or losing their jobs

as they viewed the introduction of electronic services as a threat for their jobs. In addition, there

is severe authority overlapping among different government institutes which hinders any

successful implementation of E -government (Gebba & Zakaria, 2015)

6. Conclusion and recommendations:

E -government has become a strategic tool for economic development in the developing

countries, that`s why it is important for any government to continuously assess the development

of its websites. In this context, the paper used a five stage model to assess the degree of

development of each governmental website. Findings revealed that with a total of 34 ministries;

only 12% provide real online services to the citizens while the other websites could be seen as

information provider rather than service provider. This means that the government should

provide more attention to these websites in order to be able to provide more adequate online

services for better assistance to the citizens.

23

In fact, the week progress of E -government in Egypt deters the process of economic

development. Egypt, like other developing countries, suffers from critical problems such as

overstaff in the government agencies, high corruption, and bureaucracy. Therefore, successful

implementation of E -government will lead to less hierarchical suppression, less bureaucracy and

definitely less corruption and thus causes better services delivery to citizens which is the normal

conclusion for economic development.

The unsuccessful implementation of E – government could be attributed to economic,

infrastructure, social and technological challenges especially regarding e - signature mechanism

and e -payment. As a result; the decision makers should issue a law that permits the acceptance

of documents signed electronically for different government entities and develop a

comprehensive framework that permits the citizens to pay online with different techniques

especially payment on mobile and fixed land line bills which will allow all citizens segments to

easily practice e -payments. Moreover, the government should give more attention to specific

areas such as using mobile platforms as a way of providing e -services, enhancing infrastructure

in the underdeveloped areas to deliver a better online services to the poor and promoting the

benefits of information technologies in all government agencies not only those in the

technological parks.

Finally, it is highly recommended for the government to develop action plans to increase

the citizens‘ awareness of the benefits of E –government. In that context, the action plans should

focus on providing free internet and PCs to students at schools and universities to increase the

internet usage rate. A partnership with the private sectors must develop to provide effective

training to the government employees on the importance of E -government and how the

implementation of E -government will not affect their jobs.

7. Future Research:

Literature on eGovernment implementation in the Arab countries especially in Egypt is still

lacking. Since we are the first researchers to evaluate the Egyptian governmental websites using

five stage models; it is highly recommended for other researchers to repeat the online evaluation

for the Egyptian websites using the same model to show if there were real development or not.

24

References:

Australian National Auditing Office. (1999). Electronic Service Delivery, including Internet use by

Federal Government Agencies, ANAO, available online at <www.anao.gov.au>.

Abdelsalam, H. M., Reddick, C. G., & El Kadi, H. A. (2012). Success and Failure of Local E-

government Projects: Lessons Learned from Egypt. Digital Democracy: Concepts,

Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, 3, 183-201.

Aladwani, A. M. (2002). The development of Two Tools for Measuring the Easiness and Usefulness

of Transactional Web sites. European Journal of Information Systems, 11(3), 223-234.

Al-Mamari, Q., Corbitt, B., & Oyaro Gekara, V. (2013). E-government Adoption in Oman: Motivating

Factors from a Government Perspective. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy,

7(2), 199-224.

Almarabeh, T., & Abu Ali, A. (2010). A General Framework for E-Government: Definition Maturity

Challenges, Opportunities, and Success. European Journal of Scientific Research, 39(1), 29-42

Al-Khateeb, A., Faloudah, A., Bahumayd, M., & Zafar, A. (2015). E-Government Strategy and its

impact on Economic Development of the Nation: A Case Study of the KSA. E-Government,

2(5).

Abdelkader, A. (2015). A Manifest of Barriers to Successful E-Government: Cases from the Egyptian

Programme. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 6(1)

Andersen, K. V., & Henriksen, H. Z. (2006). E-government maturity models: Extension of the Layne

and Lee model. Government information quarterly, 23(2), 236-248.

Azab, N. A., Kamel, S., & Dafoulas, G. (2009). A suggested framework for assessing electronic

government readiness in Egypt. Electronic Journal of e-Government, 7(1), 11-28.

25

Deloitte Research. (2000). At the Dawn of E-Government: The Citizen as Consumer. Deloitte

Consulting.

Deloitte, & Touche. (2001). The Citizen as Customer. CMA Management, 74(10), 58.

Fath-Allah, A., Cheikhi, L., Al-Qutaish, R. E., & Idri, A. (2014). E-Government Maturity Models: A

Comparative Study. International Journal of Software Engineering & Applications, 5(3), 71.

Fedorowicz, J., & Dias, M. A. (2010). A Decade of Design in Digital Government Research.

Government Information Quarterly, 27(1), 1-8.

Gebba, T. R., & Zakaria, M. R. (2012). E-Government in Egypt: An Analysis of Practices and

Challenges. International Journal of Business Research and Development , 4(2), 11-25.

Hiller J, Bélanger F. (2001) Privacy Strategies for Electronic Government (E-Government Series).

Arlington, VA: Pricewaterhouse Coopers Endowment for the Business of Government.

Kamel, S., & Hussein, M. (2002). The Emergence of E-Commerce in a Developing Nation: Case of

Egypt. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 9(2), 146-153.

Layne, K, Lee, Jungwoo (2001), Developing Fully Functional E-government: A Four-Stage Model,

Government Information Quarterly 18(2), 122-136.

Ma, L., Chung, J., & Thorson, S. (2005). E-government in China: Bringing Economic Development

through Administrative Reform. Government Information Quarterly, 22(1), 20-37.

McBride, N., & Stahl, B. C. (2009). Egypt‘s Information Society Strategy: A Critical Lexicography.

Journal of International Technology and Information Management, 18(1), 1-33.

Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, available at www.mcit.gov.eg [accessed in

April 2, 2015]

26

Ministry of State for Administrative Development (2004), available online at: www.egypt.gov.eg

[accessed April 2, 2015]

Moon, M.J. (2002). The evolution of E-government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality. Public

Administration Review, 62(4), 424-433.

Siau, K., & Long, Y. (2005). Synthesizing E-Government stage models-a meta-synthesis based on

meta-ethnography approach. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 105(4), 443-458.

Statskontoret. (2000). The 24/7 Agency: Criteria for 24/7 Agencies in the Networked Public

Administration, Report 2000:41 Statskontoret, Stockholm

UNPA and ASPA (2001), "Benchmarking E - Government: A Global Perspective". Available

at:https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/Portals/egovkb/Documents/un/English.pdf

UNASPA., 2001. Global survey of e-government. Asia Oceania E-business Marketplace Alliance,

available at: http://www.unpan.org/Library/MajorPublications

United Nations (2011), ICT Policy Review-Egypt, United Nations Conference on Trade and

development, (UNCTAD), available at: http://unctad.org/en/Docs/dtlstict2011d6_en.pdf

United Nations. (2014). UN E-Government Survey 2014: E-Government for the People. Available

at:https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2014

Wahed, M. E. and El Gohary E. M. , 2013. The Future Vision for the Design of e-Government in

Egypt, IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, 10(3), 292 – 304.

Welch, Eric W. and Charles C. Hinnant. (2003). ―Internet Use, Transparency and Interactivity Effects

on Trust in Government‖. Paper presented at the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference

on System Sciences.

World Economic Forum. (2014). The Global Information Technology Report 2014. Available at:

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2014-15.pdf

27

Appendix 1

Table one: The Five stages UN E- government model:

a. Authority (Agency)

(I)

Emerging

Presence

(II)

Enhanced

Presence

(III)

Interactive

Presence

(IV)

Transactional

Presence Extras

Sea

mle

ss

(V

)

Ov

era

ll S

tag

e

URL

(Web Address)

Agen

cy n

am

e

Agen

cy C

on

tacts

Agen

cy a

dd

ress

Op

erati

on

al

hou

rs

Gen

eral

FA

Qs

Org

an

iza

tio

n N

ew

s

Pu

bli

cati

on

s

On

lin

e p

oli

cy

Off

icia

l em

ail

s

Post

com

men

ts o

nli

ne

Tw

o-w

ay c

om

mu

nic

ati

on

Dow

nlo

ad

Form

s

e-F

orm

e-P

ay

men

t

e-S

ervic

e

En

gli

sh v

ersi

on

1. Egyptian government`s portal IV http://www.egypt.gov.eg/arabic/home.aspx

2. Electricity & renewable energy IV http://www.moee.gov.eg/english_new/home.aspx

3. Education and Technical Education IV http://portal.moe.gov.eg/Pages/default.aspx

4. Interior affairs IV http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/english/

5. Commerce (Trade) and Industry III http://www.mti.gov.eg/english/index.htm

6. Communication and Information

Technology III http://www.mcit.gov.eg/

7. Culture III http://www.moc.gov.eg/index.php?lang=en

8. State Information Services III http://sis.gov.eg/Ar/Default.aspx

9. Agriculture and land reclamation III http://www.agr-egypt.gov.eg/

10. Supply and Internal Trading* III http://www.msit.gov.eg/ar/

11. Transportation III http://www.mot.gov.eg/

12. Water Resources and irrigation III http://www.mwri.gov.eg/

13. Youth and Sports* III http://www.emss.gov.eg/

14. Housing Utilities and Urban Communities* III http://www.moh.gov.eg/

15. Local development* III http://www.mold.gov.eg/arabic/default.htm

16. International Cooperation III http://www.moic.gov.eg/Front/About/ContactUs.aspx

17. Social solidarity III http://www.moss.gov.eg/misa/ar-eg/الصفحةالرئيسية.aspx

18. Local Administration III http://www.ad.gov.eg/Ar/Default.aspx

19. State for Environmental affairs III http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/ 20. Planning Monitoring and Administrative II http://www.mop.gov.eg

21. Super supreme Council for Antiquities* II http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/msa_contact.htm

22. Higher Education and Scientific Research II http://www.egy-mhe.gov.eg/en

23. Finance II http://www.mof.gov.eg/english/pages/home.aspx

24. Foreign affairs II http://www.mfa.gov.eg/English/Pages/default.aspx

25. Health and Population II http://www.mohp.gov.eg/default.aspx

26. Civil aviation II http://www.civilaviation.gov.eg/

27. Defense II http://www.mod.gov.eg/mod/

28. Justice* II http://www.jp.gov.eg/ar/Default.aspx

29. Tourism II http://en.egypt.travel

30. Manpower II http://www.manpower.gov.eg

31. Investment I http://www.investment.gov.eg/en/default.aspx

32. State for Military Production* I http://www.momp.gov.eg/Ar/

33. Petroleum and Mineral Wealth I http://www.petroleum.gov.eg/ar/Pages/default.aspx

34. Religious Endowments (Awkaf) I http://www.awkaf.org/

Source: https://www.egypt.gov.eg/english/guide/directory.aspx as of November, 2015

28

Screen shots of some Egyptian E – government official websites:

Authority (Alphabetical) URL (Web Address)

1. Egyptian government`s portal

http://www.egypt.gov.eg/arabic/home.aspx

2. Agriculture and land reclamation

http://www.agr-egypt.gov.eg/

3. Super supreme Council for Antiquities

http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/msa_mp.htm

4. Civil aviation

http://www.civilaviation.gov.eg/

5. Commerce (Trade) and Industry

http://www.mti.gov.eg/english/index.htm

6. Communication and Information

Technology

http://www.mcit.gov.eg/

29

7. Culture

http://www.moc.gov.eg/index.php?lang=en

8. Defense and military production

http://www.mod.gov.eg/mod/

9. Education and Technical Education

http://www.moe.gov.eg/

10. Higher Education and Scientific Research

http://www.egy-mhe.gov.eg/en

11. Electricity & renewable energy

http://www.moee.gov.eg/english_new/home.aspx

12. Environment

http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/

30

13. Finance

http://www.mof.gov.eg/english/pages/home.aspx

14. Foreign affairs

http://www.mfa.gov.eg/English/Pages/default.aspx

15. Health and Population

http://www.mohp.gov.eg/default.aspx

16. Housing Utilities and Urban Communities

http://www.moh.gov.eg/

17. State Information Services

http://sis.gov.eg/Ar/Default.aspx

18. Interior affairs

http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/arabic/default

31

19. Investment

http://www.investment.gov.eg/en/default.aspx

20. Justice

http://www.jp.gov.eg/ar/Default.aspx

21. Local development

http://www.mold.gov.eg/arabic/default.htm

22. State for Migration Affairs and Egyptians

http://www.mfa.gov.eg/english/Pages/default.aspx

23. State for Military Production

http://www.momp.gov.eg/Ar/

24. Petroleum and Mineral Wealth

http://www.petroleum.gov.eg/ar/Pages/default.aspx

32

25. Religious Endowment

http://www.awkaf.org/

26. Supply and Internal Trading

http://www.msit.gov.eg/ar/

27. Transport

http://www.mot.gov.eg/

28. Water Resources and irrigation

http://www.mwri.gov.eg/

29. Youth and Sports

http://www.emss.gov.eg/