Public-Private Partnerships for E-Government Services: Lessons from Malaysia

Implementation of e-government is seen as a tool to improve government service delivery to citizens, businesses and within government agencies. The benefits could be more transparency, greater convenience, less corruption, revenue growth and cost reduction. However, lack of financial resources, and low levels of skills and limited capacity of governments are some of the main obstacles faced in pursuance of e-government nationwide. The introduction of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) is seen as a solution to overcome many of the obstacles and challenges faced by governments in realizing the objectives of e-government projects. PPP model is expected to increase opportunities for both the public and private sectors to serve their customers more effectively and efficiently. The main aim of this paper is to explore the need for PPP in e-government service delivery. This is done by discussing some success stories and looking at lessons learned by the Malaysian government to serve the stakeholders better in line with its vision and mission.