Maltashines in IT rankings

Malta is the second best member state among the EU 27 when it comes to the provision of eGovernment (electronic) services through its IT infrastructure, according to a European Commission report.

The report, benchmarking 20 different eGovernment services, classifies the island in second position, just after Austria, when compared not only to the EU member states but also to Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

According to the Italian firm Capgemini, entrusted with the EU study, Malta falls just behind Austria in the overall country ranking for online sophistication and for full online availability.

"These high scores put Malta into the position of one of the best performing countries with regard to the benchmark indicators used in this study," Capgemini stated.

According to the report, Malta is very sophisticated when it comes to the government proactively performing actions to enhance service delivery quality and user friendliness.

"Malta scores above the EU27 average, with six out of nine relevant services reaching the highest level of sophistication," the report notes.

"On some of the measured indicators, like personal data security, administrative burden, channel choice and access, and accessibility standards, Malta scores 25 percentage points above the EU27 average."

Overall, the report shows that five EU member states have achieved performance of 90 per cent or above in the eGovernment services benchmarked, with Austria retaining its leading position, followed by Malta, Slovenia, Portugal and the UK.

Recognising Portugal's major progress since last year, placing the country in the seventh position this year, from being one of the worst performers last year, the EU report states that "Malta, Slovenia and Estonia stand out as countries that have embraced eGovernment and advanced online service delivery to levels in advance of many 'old' member states."

The worst performing member states this year were Slovakia, Latvia and Poland.