E-GOVERNMENT IN LIBYA. REALITY AND CHALLENGES

Prepared by the researche

• Mohamed M. Nagi Elshibani
• Fajria Amara Saleh Zalita

Department of Computer Science, Higher Institute for Sincie and Technology – Tarhuna-Libya [1]

Democratic Arabic Center

Journal of Afro-Asian Studies : Twenty-Third Issue – November 2024

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin

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ABSTRACT

With the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), way of Government has been revolutionized. E-government provides governmental services through websites and portals with the objective to support and simplify Government for all stakeholders thus making Government more efficient and effective. However it has been observed that in many countries, the goals of E-government has not been achieved with the often reason for its failure is techno-centric focus instead of people centric focus. In this paper, Libyan e-government infrastructure has been discussed and compared to e-government in Libya and other neighboring countries in North Africa.

1. Introduction

Traditional government institutions did not provide the required attention to the quality of the service or the response to the client. One clear reason is the lack of technology at the best and unavailability of efficient mode of communication between governmental organization and citizens. Current era is the age of ICT focusing on utilizing technology for better management, communication and development of the resources especially human resource. ICT applications are not limited to individuals but have its scope in business, health, education, and government. E-government is common in most the countries including developed, developing and under developed countries. As per the UN survey on E-government, more than 196 countries have taken initiatives towards E- government.  E-government is a form of e-business in Government and refers to the process and structures which are required to give electronic services to the people. It is worth mentioning that e-government is not about ‘e’ but about the government, it is not about  computers & websites but about citizens & businesses, it is about translating processes but about transforming processes.

E-government is a set of ongoing process between the government, public service and citizenry and these processes evolve slowly rather than change dramatically. An e-government system should have the potential of selecting the most appropriate services and provide the services to the people in the most efficient and effective way. The deployment of such system must be trustworthy, cost effective, easily upgradable and easy to maintain. Government policy making and its implementation can be transformed with help of ICT by substituting traditional services with computerized one.  E-government can bring considerable changes in the way the services are being provided, new services can be fashioned and efficient management of the outsourced services can be done.

The rest of the paper is organized the following way. Section 2 talks about the an overview of the state of Libya,  Section 3 talks about the Country Profile , The Education System and Infrastructure, Section 4 talks about the Definition of E-government ,Scope of E-government ,E-government requirements, Section 5 talks about the contributions of E-government, section 6 is about E-government Challenges , Section7 talks about the Comparison of E-government of Libya with neighboring countries in Northern Africa,Section8 talks about the Advantages and benefits of E-government implementation followed by the conclusion.

Libya is a country in the North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west, as shown in figure (1).

Figure(1) : Libya map and geographical location. ⁽⁴⁾

2. Overview

Libya boasts the highest literacy rate in the Arab world, and the UN’s Human Development Index, which ranks standard of living, social security, health care and other factors for development, places Libya at the top of all African countries.

[4] Amr Hamdy. Survey of ICT And Education In Africa: Libya Country June 2007

Government reform plans in developing ICT infrastructure in Libya and incorporating

ICT in education as key components in its overall development plans. Libya has intentions to be seen taking a leadership role on the African continent through sponsorship of major initiatives and projects, including those in the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Rwanda. That said, the challenges of poor existing infrastructure and a lack of skilled and ICT-equipped teachers is a great challenge to the current reform process. ⁽⁴⁾

3. Country Profile

The table (1) below show information about Libya profile, which display information about religions, languages, population, etc…

Table 1 provides some selected socio-economic indicators for the country. ⁽⁴⁾

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[4] Amr Hamdy. Survey of ICT And Education In Africa: Libya Country June 2007

• The Education System

Education in Libya is free to everyone from elementary school right up to university and post-graduate study, at home or abroad. Schools are positioned throughout the country. The policy is to reach out even to the nomadic hard-to-reach areas, and mobile classrooms were introduced to cover all of Libya, as shown in table (2).

Table 2: Selected Education Data. ⁽⁴⁾

 3-2    Infrastructure

Libya has moved from having virtually no lines after its revolution in the early 1960s, to having one in every 10 of its four million inhabitants now having telephone

______________________________

[4] Amr Hamdy. Survey of ICT And Education In Africa: Libya Country June 2007

access. The telephone system is 90% digital and is expected to be fully digitized by the end of the year. In Tobruq,  Naidoo opened a new digital telephone exchange, watched by many hundreds of local citizens. A Siemens digital switch will add a further 8,000 lines to the country’s rapidly growing telecommunications infrastructure.

The telecommunications operator is the General Posts and Telecommunications Company (GTPC) and there is also a cellular service based on the GSM standard, which is managed by Ericson and Orbit Telecom for GPTC.

The Centre National Information Documentation is the main networking agency in the country. The Post and Telecom operates an Internet hub in Tripoli with a 2MB International link via Teleglobe in Canada. Dial-up and leased-line facilities are available via Libya Telecom and Technology.

Libya continued to lead its North African counterparts on the 2011 Arab ICT Use Index, with a score of 2.21, and placed seventh overall among MENA economies. In 2011, Libya placed last in terms of growth on all indicators. The negative growth registered in the country’s computer installed base, mobile and fixed line indicators was certainly largely fueled by the political events which took place in the country over the course of 2010-2011 The Libyan telecommunication network is the core of the ICT sector for the country.

The telecommunication network, however, is poor and has suffered significantly from the lack of competition and essential experience. Consumers complain of low coverage, poor connections and dropped calls at peak times. The modest rise in mobile phone penetration from 163.21% in 2010 to 166.67% in 2011 was driven by the negative growth in the sector, which registered -8.26%, causing the country subscriptions to drop from 10,900,000 in 2010 to 10,000,000 in 2011. Mobile subscription figures for Libya could not be found through the country’s two state-owned mobile operators, Libyana and Al-Madar Al-Jadeed, and figures provided by ITU were used. GPTC, the General Posts and Telecommunications Company, had expanded landline coverage to many parts of Libya, although the quality of its infrastructure and service as mentioned previously needs substantial improvement. Libya’s fixed line subscriptions dropped to -17.55% in 2011 to reach an estimated 1,012,100 subscriptions; down from 1,227,500 in 2010 to 10,000,000 in 2011.

The country had sustained a low growth rate in the sector for several years, but, as expected, witnessed a sharp drop in 2010 and 2011, mainly due to the unstable political climate which caused many residents to leave the country and many businesses to close down. Fixed line penetration fell from 18.38% in 2010 to 16.87% in 2011. The fixed line penetration rate placed Libya in sixth place in the MENA region, ahead of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria – with a strong potential to grow given the country’s comparative wealth. In addition to managing the country’s fixed line sector, LPTIC’s monopoly effectively extends to Internet services, although there are some seven licensed ISPs in the country, as shown in table (3).

Table 3: ICT in Libya. ⁽²⁾

[2] Abdulkader Kamli – Madar Research & Development-CEO and Research Director . ARAB ICT USE REPORT – 2012

International connectivity is in the hands of the state-owned provider, the Libya Telecom and Technology Company (LTT). The latter dominates the Internet access market, which numbered 1,355,796 users in 2011. Internet users rose by a mere 10.00% in 2010, from 1,232,542 users, with Internet penetration registering a modest 22.60% by the end of 2011. While low, the penetration rate ranked Libya in 14th place in the MENA region on the Internet User penetration indicator, and third in the North Africa region behind Tunisia and Morocco. On the computer front, Libya registered a negative growth of -10.00% in its computer installed base, to list 892,601 computers in 2011 down from 991,779 in 2010. This affected the country’s penetration, moreover, registering 14.88%, marginally higher than the 14.85% attained in 2010. Libya maintained its position in ninth place among MENA countries in terms of penetration, however, for the seventh year in a row, as shown in table (4).

  Table 4: Computer Penetration in Libya. ⁽²⁾

1. Definition of E-government

E-government is the government owned or operated systems of information and communication technologies that transform relations with citizens, the private sector and/or other government agencies so as to promote citizens’ empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, or improve government efficiency.⁽³⁾

[2] Abdulkader Kamli – Madar Research & Development-CEO and Research Director . ARAB ICT USE REPORT – 2012

[3] E –government for developing countries : opportunities and challenges. Velentina (Dardha) Ndou.Department of Business Administration  University of Shkoder,Albania.

4-1    Scope of E-government

While E-government encompasses a wide range of activities,
E-government identifies three distinct areas. These include government-to-government (G to G), government-to-citizens (G to C), and government to business (G to B), Government to citizen (G to C) facilitates citizen interaction with government, which is primary goal of E-government. This attempts to make transactions, such as payment of taxes, renewing licenses and applying for certain benefits, less time consuming and easy to carry out.

Government to Business (G to B) sector includes both the procurement of goods and services by the government as well as the sale of surplus government goods to the public on Line.  In many respects, the government to government (G to G) sector represents the backbone of e-government. It is felt that governments at the union, state and local level must enhance and update their own internal systems and procedures before electronic transactions with citizens and business are introduced. Government to government E-government involves sharing data and conducting electronic exchanges between various governmental agencies. ⁽⁵⁾

4-2    E-government requirements

Can put the important requirements for the implementation of E-government in the following points.

1- Provide the necessary infrastructure for communication: the use of information technology to download e-government business is all over the networks and the network must be large and sophisticated communication building.

2- The need to spread the Internet: Internet basics of building e-government, which is secured through which communication between network users across all sectors of government or non-governmental organizations and citizens within the digital environment.

[5] E-Government: Challenges and Opportunities in Botswana  Nugi Nkwe . Department of Accounting and Finance  University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana

3- Computer: Most of the E-government services are made through the computer, so the provision of training and rehabilitation of the citizens are very necessary.

4- Provide the necessary legislation: This requires the provision of a number of laws that work to maintain and ensure the security and protection of the confidentiality of the documentary data.

5- Business process re-engineering in government: requires the construction of E-government project reorganization of all procedures relating to the work of various governments and converted to a digital system.

This requires the following steps:

• All government services should be described in detail.
• Determine the relationship and overlapping actions with different ministries or departments in detail.
• Re-design procedures of which deleted parts do not fit with this new method.
• Publication of the details of the new measures on websites.

5. Main Contribution of E-government

Three application domains should be considered as overlapping. and E-government can be found in the overlapping area of these three application domains, demonstrating the complexities and heterogeneities needed to be handled for assuring its success as shown in figure(2).

Figure2: E-Government domains ⁽³⁾

[3] E –government for developing countries : opportunities and challenges. Velentina (Dardha) Ndou.Department of Business Administration  University of Shkoder,Albania.

1- E-Administration – for automation and computerization of administrative tasks and for realization of strategic connections among internal processes, departments and functions.

2- E-Citizens and e-Services – to realize connections and interrelationships among governments and citizens and to deliver automated services.

3- E-Society – to enable relationships and interactions beyond boundaries, among public agencies, private sector and civil community in general.

 It is now widely accepted that ICT offers increased opportunities for economic development and plays a critical role in rapid economic change, productive capacity improvements and international competitiveness enhancement for developing countries. The range of choices and opportunities in developing countries is expanding. ICT is believed to be a powerful enabling tool to address some of the key barriers and challenges for entering the global economy and for future growth potential. It can transform old challenges and create unprecedented possibilities for sustainable economic development, just as it has done for businesses in the industrial world.

 ICTs offer the potential not just to collect, store, process and diffuse enormous quantities of information at minimal cost, but also to network, interact and communicate across the world (Crede and Mansell, 1998). Econometric studies have found evidence of a strong positive relationship between ICT investments and GDP growth illustrating the importance of ICTs for development, both in the commercial and the public sectors. An OECD (2002) research project, based on national studies about the impact of ICT on the economy. ⁽³⁾

6. E-Government Challenges

While it is evident that E-government and ICTs, in general, are powerful drivers of wealth creation and growth, there remain many challenges which hamper the exploration and exploitation of its opportunities. The multidimensionality and

[3] E –government for developing countries : opportunities and challenges. Velentina (Dardha) Ndou.Department of Business Administration  University of Shkoder,Albania.

complexity of E-government initiatives implies the existence of a wide variety of challenges and barriers to its implementation and management. Can classify issues faced by the e-government into three categories, as shown in Figure (3).

Figure 3: E-Government Challenges ⁽³⁾

Main challenges of E-government development and implementation in developing countries.

1- ICT infrastructure (e-readiness, computer literacy, telecommunication equipment)

2-  Policy issues (legislation)

3- Human capital development and lifelong learning (skills, capabilities, education, Learning)

4-  Change management (culture, resistance to change)

5- Partnership and collaboration (public/private partnership, community and network creation)

6-  Strategy (vision, mission)

7-  Leadership role (motivate, involve, influence, support). ⁽³⁾

[3] E –government for developing countries : opportunities and challenges. Velentina (Dardha) Ndou.Department of Business Administration  University of Shkoder,Albania.

7. Comparison of E-government of Libya with neighboring countries in Northern Africa

Though most countries of Northern Africa increased their e-government offerings since Survey 2010, they slipped in overall world rankings this year 2012 primarily because other countries overtook them in infrastructural development, especially in mobile telephone access. Tunisia (0.4833) maintained its position as the leader of e-government in the sub-region. Morocco improved its e-government value (0.4209) reaching 120th. Algeria increased its e-government development value by 13 per cent and maintained its global rank. Egypt did not improve upon much and declined to 107th. At the same time, domestic political turmoil impacted the virtual presence of the Government in Libya (formerly the Libyan), which went offline at the time of the survey assessment. As result of it, when it comes to E-government development index and telecommunication index value. Libya has the least E-government development index and telecommunication index value within the selected countries despite of high literacy rate which is really an alarming situation. As shown in table (5).

Table 5: Comparison of Various Parameters of Libya with other Countries in Northern Africa. ⁽¹⁾

Most of the important dimensions of e-government, namely: the scope and quality of services via the Internet, and the state of telecommunications infrastructure

[1] United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 E-Government for the People

development, and human capital authentic. Each of these sets of indicators is in the same compound that can be extracted and analyzed independently scale limit.

EGDI = (⅓ * Services Index online) + (⅓ * Telecommunications Index)

+ (⅓ * human capital index).

Must each of the three dimensions has a value for the application EGDI.

EGDI is used as a measure to provide numerical order for the development of E-government across the Member States of the United Nations. The comparison between Libya and neighboring Arab countries in the field of E-government development application using the measure EGDI.

The table (6), shown details about comparison of e-service like (E-vote, national ID card, E-tourism,etc…)of Libya with neighboring countries in Northern Africa.  Because there is proportionality between e- services and the successful implementation of E-government. Offers many of the E-services give us an indication of the level of E-government in the state. Note in Libya that there are almost no E-services.

Table 6 : Comparison of E-Services in Northern Africa. ^{(6) (7) (8)}

[6] http://www.egypt.gov.eg/

[7] http://www.maroc.ma/

[8] http://www.tunisie.gov.tn/

8. Advantages and benefits of E-government implementation

 Advantages and benefits of e-government implementation are the same for both developed and developing countries. However; E-government applications have many benefits for citizens, business and government entities. E-government applications allow people, businesses, and government sectors to access to available government information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which improves the quality of these services. ⁽⁹⁾

 According to implementation of e-government will be get this benefits for Libya:

1- The elimination of a centralized state and the transition to a decentralized state. Because of all the ministries, institutions, departments and authorities found in the capital, Tripoli, Causing problems for citizens in other cities If we take into account that a large area of Libya.

2- Increase transparency. There is a big problem in Libya in terms of financial and administrative corruption, where Libya ranks sixth on the list of most corrupt countries in the world according to the report, “Transparency International” issued in 2013.

3- Create new job opportunities. In Libya there is a large unemployment rate, where the Ministry of Labour Libyan estimated in its report for 2013 that the percentage of unemployed in Libya for 15 percent, the ministry said in a statistics her that the number of unemployed amounted to 400 thousand, and 37% of them are qualified to work.

[9] Implementation of e-Government: Advantages and Challenges

1. Alshehri PhD candidate in School of ICT, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

        Dr. Steve Drew,  Senior Lecturer in the School of ICT,Griffith University,

 Brisbane, Australia

9. 9. Conclusion

From the above discussion what can we conclude that the application of e-government in Libya will have great results and Libya will jump great strides forward. But Libya at the beginning of the road to move to e-government and that Libya still has a lot of steps, and that future results depend on careful planning and best use of resources and capabilities in Libya.

Bibliographie

• United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 E-Government for the People
• Abdulkader Kamli – Madar Research & Development-CEO and Research Director . ARAB ICT USE REPORT – 2012
• E –government for developing countries : opportunities and challenges. Velentina (Dardha) Ndou.Department of Business Administration University of Shkoder,Albania.
• Amr Hamdy. Survey of ICT And Education In Africa: Libya Country June 2007
• E-Government: Challenges and Opportunities in Botswana

      Nugi Nkwe . Department of Accounting and Finance

      University of Botswana Gaborone, Botswana                         

• http://www.egypt.gov.eg/
• http://www.maroc.ma/
• http://www.tunisie.gov.tn/
• Implementation of e-Government: Advantages and Challenges

1. Alshehri PhD candidate in School of ICT, Griffith University,

        Brisbane, Australia

        Dr. Steve Drew,  Senior Lecturer in the School of ICT,Griffith University,  

 Brisbane, Australia

[1] ¹E-mail: Mnage30@yahoo.com

²E-mail: manalamer2012@yahoo.com