Brookings Institution of Governance Studies has ranked South Korea at the 1st position out of 198 countries. Other highly ranked countries in the study are Taiwan, United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Germany and Ireland. Singapore, which was placed 4th, is the top ranking country among Asean nations, dropping down two places from its 2nd position in 2007. This study was done towards e-Government country ranking in the 'Improving Technology Utilisation in Electronic Government around the World 2008'.
The rankings are decided on the basis of 18 different features which were: publications, databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign language access, not having ads, not having premium fees, not having the user fee, disability access, having privacy policies, security policies, allowing digital signatures on transactions, an option to pay via credit cards, email contact information, areas to post comments, option for email updates, option for website personalisation and PDA accessibility.
Brunei Darussalam was ranked at 17th position out of 198 countries, this has been a big leap for the country which was placed at the 28th position in 2007. Other Southeast Asian countries ranked above Brunei include Malaysia at 11th place, a significant leap from its 25th position in 2007.
Cambodia is placed at 70th position, moving up 17 places from its position in 2007. Philippines is at 89th position, Myanmar at 93rd position, Thailand at 138rd position, Laos and Indonesia at 151st and 175th positions respectively.
