Press Releases

9 out of 10 Use Government Electronic Services

IRAS E-Filing; My CPF Online Services; Job Matching Service Application; and Community Centre Activity Registration. If these services sound familiar to you, you are likely to be among one of the infocomm savvy population that transacts electronically with the government.

In 2004, more than half the population in Singapore (57%) transacted with the government. This is released in the latest e-Government Perception Survey by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The latest survey shows that of those who transacted with the government, nearly 9 out of 10 transact at least once with the Government electronically in the past 12 months. This is a notable finding in this year's survey, as this garnered a 15% increase from 73% in 2003 to 88% in 2004.

Government electronic services also fared well in service quality, where 8 out of 10 Singaporeans who transacted electronically with the Government are satisfied with the overall quality of electronic services.

Other Survey Findings

To date, there are about 1,600 Government online services made readily available to the public via the Singapore Government Online portal. These include electronic services from filing of income tax to registering for a company. Through the various awareness and promotional efforts initiated in 2004, the survey shows 7 out of 10 of the total population have read or heard of at least three Government electronic services. The three most cited Government electronic services highlighted in the survey are Filing of income tax; Requesting for CPF Statement and Encashing or topping up of Economic Restructuring Shares.

The survey also indicated that the remaining 12% Singaporeans who transacted with the government through non-electronic means did so via counters, post or fax. Findings showed that this group of people does not see the need to use Government electronics services and prefers personal contact. This group of the population includes housewives, retirees and blue-collar workers.

Moving forward, we will increase awareness and spur adoption through promotional programmes. To enhance satisfaction of electronic service delivery, users can look forward to better search facilities and user-friendly online services.

Promotional Programmes to Increase Awareness and Spur Adoption

To further spur adoption and encourage Singaporeans to transact with the government electronically, IDA and the MOF have developed a year-long consumer education campaign that will include educational advertisements through print and outdoor communication medium. The campaign aims to encourage usage of government electronic services as it brings ease and convenience to online users.

As part of the campaign, a joint promotion by IDA, MOF and NETS will be organised from July to December this year. During this six-month promotion, online users will stand a chance to win attractive prizes when they make government payments online via two modes of payment under the eNETS payment infrastructure. The two modes of online payment include credit card and direct debit. Online users can look forward to bagging home prizes sponsored by NETS, which include iPOD mini and HP notebooks in the weekly and monthly draws respectively. A 42" Plasma TV is also in the line-up for the grand prize draw in December.

Commenting on the survey results, Mr Fong Yong Kian, Director of Managing for Excellence, Ministry of Finance said, "We are encouraged by the results achieved so far and we will continue to improve the users' experience with government electronic services. This is part of our efforts to transform public service delivery so that our citizens and customers can enjoy even more accessible and easy-to-use online services."

Ms Wu Choy Peng, Deputy Chief Executive of the IDA and Government Chief Information Officer added, "Through the promotion with NETS, IDA hopes to encourage more Singaporeans to go online to access government information and services. This is convenient for individuals and businesses. This promotion with NETS is in-line with our e-Government strategy to increase awareness and convenient access to electronic services."

Ms Poh Mui Hoon, Chief Executive Office of Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte Ltd said, "We are confident this promotion will encourage more Singaporeans to make their government payments in the convenient, secure and stable eNETS online payment environment.

This initiative is an extension of NETS' core objective of providing solutions that make peoples' daily lives easier and, I hope, will consolidate NETS' status as Singapore's favourite way to pay."

Please refer to Annex A for details on survey findings, Annex B for benefits of using government electronic services and Annex C on some examples of the e-services with eNETS payment.

Annexes A, B and C.

JOINTLY ISSUED BY INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE, MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND NETS SINGAPORE PTE LTD