Prof. Dr. Toshio Obi, Director of the Institute and Head of the research team submitted this report. Professor Obi observed that ICT can be a powerful tool to current economic issues and in doing so, consolidate an inclusive Information Society. Governments are key actors in this process in building towards a citizen-oriented state.
Just a slight advantage allowed Singapore to remain atop the Ranking for the third year in a row, followed by USA which had been placed first during 2005-2008 and second in 2010. Achieving breakthrough performance Sweden was ranked third, followed by Korea and Finland. Estonia having significantly improved its e-government development scores entered top 8 and Belgium became the top 9 for the first time in 2011 survey. The complete list of the top 15 countries (economies) which have the most advanced development in e-government according to the Waseda Survey are: (1) Singapore, (2) USA, (3)Sweden, (4) Korea, (5) Finland, (6) Japan, (7) Canada, (8) Estonia,(9)Belgium,(10)UK/Denmark.,(12)Italy,(13)Taiwan , ,(14)Australia,(15)Norway This latest edition of the Waseda Ranking surveys the e-Government development of 50 countries altogether. New to the 2011 ranking are 10 countries, which were added to the survey for the first time: Czech Republic, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Macau SAR, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, and Uzbekistan. In order to obtain the latest and most accurate information, along with the assessment of relevant web pages and reports as well as interviews members of the Institute attended local and international e-Government conferences, conducted meetings with government officials and research institutions in major countries.
The Waseda University Institute of e-Government is also in charge of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) e-Government Research Center. In coordination with APEC, the Institute has been continuously monitoring and researching on the development of e-Government strategies of APEC member economies since 2004 as part of the activities of the “e-APEC” initiative.
