An analysis of E-governance in Pakistan from the lens of the Chinese governance model

In this era of digitalization, the role of information and communication technology (ICT) has significantly increased. The integration of ICT into the government system has improved efficiency and working processes. Some countries such as China have successfully integrated ICT into their governance system. However, many other countries especially the developing world are yet to effectively utilize the role of ICT in their governance structure and these countries are struggling to produce a better governance system. It is, therefore, imperative for the developing world to learn from successful nations and devise their governance systems so that ICT can be fully utilized and produce good governance. However, such comparative analyses are not done as such to bring strengths and weaknesses in the integration of ICT into the governance system especially in developing countries' governance systems. This study contributes by conducting a comparative study on the China-Pakistan e-government progress. China has widely implemented e-government, which has helped the country to ensure good governance. Pakistan, on the other hand, is also moving towards digitalization and making efforts to implement e-government. This research examines the United Nations' E-Government Development Index (EGDI) reports and rankings. The findings of our research show that China has significantly improved its ranking, whereas Pakistan's ranking has indicated a gradual decline except for the year 2008. This happened because of a lack of investment in infrastructure, scarcity of financial resources, weak institutional capabilities, and limited access to advanced technologies. Moreover, there is a big gap between public policy and public implementation in Pakistani scenarios. However, it has been dug out in this study that employing the Chinese model and seeking cooperation with China can improve e-governance ranking and overall governance in Pakistan. The study advances the understanding of e-governance and its challenges in Pakistan and the findings of the study will assist researchers, policymakers, and officials in the implementation and development of e-projects in Pakistan.

Evaluating e-governance through e-government: Practices and challenges of assessing the digitalisation of public governmental services

Digitalisation and adaptation of governance to the digital age arguably transform the relationship between agents (i.e., public institutions) and clients (i.e., citizens) in policy-making. E-governance is the most widely used term for the result of this digital transformation in view of the changing nature of politics. This special issue zooms into digitalised public services by discussing practices and challenges in their provision, usage and evaluation. In doing so, it highlights interaction of e-governance (relationship among citizens, government, public and private actors notably in the context of digitalisation and innovation) and e-government (public services enabled by ICT). Contributions to the special issue identify challenges and pitfalls in implementing and evaluating e-governance by analysing different policy areas and geographical regions. The findings of the contributions suggest that factors of e-governance performance that potentially serve as evaluation criteria tend to be (overly) sensitive to context, i.e. policy area, systemic constellations, institutional settings, and administrative traditions in question. Consequently, attempts to evaluate e-governance, at least based on the empirical insight demonstrated in this special issue, remain limited to specific tools, instruments and contexts through which e-governance is operationalised and delivered (e.g., websites, projects and policy initiatives).

Effectiveness of strategy implementation and e-governance performance

E-governance projects generally face many planning and implementation related challenges. It is well acknowledged that the complexities involved ask for adequate strategic planning before launching these projects. However, it is observed that many times even the well-planned e-governance projects may not perform as per expectations due to ineffective strategy implementation. This could perhaps be one of the causes of the unsatisfactory performance of e-governance projects, particularly in the context of developing countries, as reported by some studies. The article attempts to analyze the effectiveness of strategy implementation and performance of e-governance based on a study of a few agriculture related e-governance projects in India. Suitable measures and hypotheses have been conceptualized for studying the effectiveness of strategy implementation and e-governance performance. The empirical support is provided by a survey of operational level officers involved in the implementation of projects. The analysis has brought out four constituents of the construct 'effectiveness of strategy implementation' which has been revealed as a predictor of 'performance of e-governance'. The study findings are expected to contribute in terms of giving more thrust to identified factors of strategy implementation while planning for e-governance initiatives. The findings may also trigger corrective actions in several such ongoing projects which are struggling to deliver the intended outcomes. Overall, the research based interventions by practitioners may lead to better performance of e-governance projects for the benefit of society at large.