e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

Box 2.2. E-government-related surveys
x Since 1999, the Ministry of the Interior has made a series of annual surveys on citizens’ views on the delivery of
electronic services by the public administration. The results suggest that while citizens are familiar with services
provided by their own municipality or local state authority, they are little aware of other public-sector electronic
services. These limited surveys indicate that Finns support the development of e-government services, but do not
reveal much about citizen demand for them.
x As a part of building the national citizen portal, the MoF surveyed 100 citizens and civil servants in 2000. The
results showed that citizens recognised the need for a portal that could provide i) information about public sector
organisations and their services; ii) advanced electronic services with the possibility of transactions; and
iii) feedback mechanisms on specific questions.
x The Confederation of Finnish Industries and Employers has begun to conduct a business tendency survey on ICT
services, covering companies of about 45000 employees and turnover of 7.5 billion euros (it covers over half of
the whole ICT business sector). The Confederation also publishes a monthly ICT service confidence indicator
and a quarterly general business outlook including ICT services. These business tendency surveys are part of the
European Commission harmonised business survey system.
x The Chamber of Commerce and the Association of SMEs have also conducted several surveys on companies’
interest in electronic services.
x For regional portals, the most commonly used services were public services. Even though the attitude towards
these services was positive and they were frequently used, these services were also seen as the ones that needed
the most development.
52. What the government does know about citizens’ demand for e-government is that it is as yet
relatively limited. This is not remarkable, given that citizens have relatively limited contact with the state
administration. The survey by Statistics Finland showed that, on average, citizens have two contacts a year
with the administration, whether via electronic channels or otherwise (Table 1). In comparison, the typical
Finnish company has at least 25 interactions a year with the tax administration alone, leaving a much wider
scope for the development of electronic services. As noted above, the level of enthusiasm or demand for
electronic services seems to be correlated with the overall level of experience with electronic services,
whether public or private. The OECD survey found that respondents reported the greatest demand for
electronic services from businesses (41%), followed by citizens (34%) and finally, from other public
organisations (24%).
Table 2.1. Number of citizen transactions based on Statistic Finland survey
Percentages
In response to the question: “How often have you done this within the last year?”
Never Once More often
Announcement of change of address 82 13 5
Change of tax rate 71 25 4
Other tax-related income 68 28 4
Property tax-related 84 15 2
Child day-care 89 8 4
Income support 92 5 3
Housing support 86 11 4
Study support 88 9 3
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