The annual UN e-Government Survey 2008 reveals large differences between five regions of the world in terms of e-Government readiness. Europe has a clear advantage over the other regions, followed by the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Asia and Oceania were slightly below the world average. The report also shows that only a few governments have made the necessary investment to move from e-Government applications per se to a more integrated connected governance stage. The governments that did invest in broadband infrastructure scored relatively high.
The infrastructure index shows that investment in cellular phones has been dramatic over the past three years in both the developed and developing countries. Another issue that came to the forefront is that back office operations need to be seamlessly integrated into one system for effective governance. This was reflected in the Survey from the experience of a number of countries from Northern Europe that revamped their national and ministries' web sites towards an integrated programme delivery. There were large differences between the five regions in terms of e-Government readiness, with Europe (0.6490) having a clear advantage over the other regions, followed by the Americas (0.4936), Asia (0.4470), Oceania (0.4338) and Africa (0.2739). Asia and Oceania were slightly below the world average (0.4514), while Africa lagged far behind.
