GATINEAU, QUEBEC, May 4, 2004 -- The Honourable Stephen Owen, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, is extremely pleased with Accenture's latest report ranking Canada first among 22 countries in e-government for the fourth year in a row. "This report underlines Canada's success in offering on-line services that best serve Canadians," said Minister Owen. "We are leading the way in e-government in terms of service breadth, service depth and customer relationship management. We are providing services in ways that cross traditional program, departmental and governmental boundaries. Canadians have told us how they want to receive their services, and the Government of Canada is delivering." Furthermore, Canada continued to increase the gap between itself and the other countries studied. The report states that Canada's e-government program continues to set the standard for the rest of the world. Second-ranked countries, the U.S. and Singapore, each grew approximately 6 percent, as opposed to Canada's 9 percent. According to Accenture, "Once again, Canada's focus on self-examination and its relentless pursuit of user feedback have allowed it to build what is clearly one of the world-leading customer-focused government on-line programs." Accenture's fifth annual study of the international e-Government landscape, entitled eGovernment Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value, highlights some of the Government of Canada's recent innovative on-line services, such as Web Record of Employment and Canada's wireless portal, (canada.gc.ca/mobile/wireless_e.html) which offers services through personal digital assistants and Web-enabled cell phones. Still in its early stages, the wireless portal experienced 900 percent more activity in 2003 than in 2002. Recent research demonstrates that Canadians are flocking to Government of Canada on-line services - and that they are pleased with the service. According to a recent survey, 66% of Canadian Internet users visited a government Web site in 2003. More than 80% of Canadians whose most recent contact with the Government of Canada was by Internet were satisfied with the services they received (EKOS, Rethinking the Information Highway, 2003). Accenture's annual e-Government study ranks countries according to the maturity of on-line services, describes global trends and provides recommendations to governments for improving their on-line services and delivering innovative solutions. The countries included in the research are: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. Canada's Government On-Line initiative uses information and communication technology to provide Canadians with enhanced access to improved citizen-centred, integrated services, anytime, anywhere and in the official language of their choice. Information for citizens of other countries, on topics ranging from visiting or immigrating to Canada, doing business with Canada, to Canada's international relations and global activities, is available at CanadaInternational.gc.ca. For more information on the Government On-Line initiative, including its recent report to Parliament, visit www.gol-ged.gc.ca. The Accenture report, eGovernment Leadership: High Performance, Maximum Value, is available at: http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries\government\gove_egov_value.xml -30- For information please contact: Public Works and Government Services Canada Office of the Minister Renee Gillen, Press Secretary (819) 994-5412 Public Works and Government Services Canada Pierre Teotonio Senior Media Relations Advisor (819) 956-2310 PWGSC News Releases are also available on our Internet site at www.pwgsc.gc.ca/text/generic/sub_infocentre_newsrel-e.html
