Russia: E-Government

Overview

With the eRussia Program finally in place and operational, Russian citizens can hopefully expect to see less bureaucracy in their dealings with the government.  Following the West’s lead, “The Russian Government wants to use IT to make official information more accessible and to reduce the heavy bureaucratic burned on citizens and business. It also wants to improve efficiency in federal and local governments by transferring as much of the state’s work online as possible.”  (47) So far, they have created a government portal: www.government.ru and several regions have participated in pilot programs for e-government implementations including e-mail and document management systems. (46)

 Capabilities currently in place

“The Russian Government wants to use IT to make official information more accessible and to reduce the heavy bureaucratic burned on citizens and business. It also wants to improve efficiency in federal and local governments by transferring as much of the state’s work online as possible.”  (47) So far, they have created a government portal: www.government.ru and several regions have participated in pilot programs for e-government implementations including e-mail and document management systems. (46)

E-government Usage

In 2001, the level of government online usage was only 3%.  To make matters worse, the percentage of internet users that thought use of government online was unsafe: 62%. (50)

Planned Capabilities

Now that the eRussia Program has passed the planning phase, it is well into several studies and pilot programs.  The eRussia goal is that electronic interaction should account for 65% of internal communications and up to 40% of communications between federal, regional, and local governments by 2010.  Also, as public Internet outlets increase they will provide a range of services to citizens including submitting tax declarations and electronic voting.