Israel’s e-government initiatives are evident from the coordination of technology activities for major government entities under Ministry of Science and technology. Government web sites look professional with easy navigation and Multi language (Hebrew, English and Arabic) capabilities. The Israel Government Gateway (targeted at approximately 6.5 million inhabitants) provides a common online access to information, forms, bids, and services, in addition to contact information for ministers, their spokespersons, and senior government executives. The government also has an ambitious plan to provide secure email address for all citizen to be used for contacts with authorities[25]. An electronic ID card system for all citizens is also in implementation phase. But there has been some setbacks due to contractor and security management[26].

E-government initiatives switched to full fledged mode with the comprehensive computerization of government offices after 2000 (To avoid the Y2K bug fears). The implementation of the project consisted of three stages. The first stage established a secured intra-government Intranet network called Gov@net. Merkava, another layer of technology (the Hebrew acronym for government-wide computerization) is being built on this infrastructure at a cost of NIS 800 million[27]. The Merkava project (a Government-wide system for managing Financial, HR, Logistics and Real Estates operations[28]) is based on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) programs made by SAP, one of the world's largest e-business solution software developers. SAP is using the project to demonstrate to governments around the world that it is possible to computerize their systems using SAP products. Tehila the third stage created an infrastructure for handling financial transactions for all the government offices. The first service made available was to companies, for the payment of fines and VAT transfers.

Countries vary enormously in their overall e-government performance. Israel is among the most highly ranked nations compared to neighbors like Syria, Jordan and Egypt (Comparison table listed below).  In general, countries in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East rank more highly than those in Russia and Central Asia, South America, Pacific Ocean islands, Central America, and Africa[29].

Top E-Government Countries

 

The following table shows the percentage of web sites in selected countries that have features, such as online services, publications, and databases: