The findings of a survey show that among 787 respondents, 83 percent said they agreed that the development of e-government has made their daily life more convenient, while 80 percent said that the development of e-government enables them to handle public services much easier, indicating that young people were generally satisfied with the current e-government development in Macau and the government’s mobile app “Macao One Account”, based on the satisfaction scores of 6.77 and 6.91 out of 10 respectively.
The findings noted that less than 10 percent of the respondents were “very satisfied” with the e-government, showing that there was still room for improvement.
The Macao New Chinese Youth Association (MNCYA) conducted the survey in August about residents’ views on the government e-services and its “Macao One Account”, where local residents aged between 18 and 45 were chosen randomly in the street to fill in questionnaires.
According to Wikipedia, e-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region.
The association hosted a press conference yesterday at its office on Avenida do Almirante Lacerda to present the findings of the survey.
The findings noted that 38 per cent and 27 per cent of the respondents said that being free from time constraints and saving waiting time respectively were the main reasons driving them to use e-government.
In the past year, according to the findings, the residents’ frequency of using “Macao One Account” was relatively high, with 37 percent and about 10 percent using it at least once a month and at least once a week respectively.
In terms of e-government services, the findings show that the perceived lack of service coverage, slow information update and lack of one-stop online services were the three aspects that the respondents were most dissatisfied with.
The association urged the government to continue to promote the “one-stop” development direction of e-government and strive for “completing one thing at a time” for public services, and to add dialogue robots to the government websites and the “Macao One Account” to strengthen interaction between residents and the government.
Chan Chi Weng, vice-president of the association, told reporters after the press conference that according to the findings, over 50 percent of the respondents said that the coverage of functions provided by the “Macao One Account” was insufficient, while the other 50 percent said that the “Macao One Account” should not include too many functions.
Chan said that the government should consider the needs of the public first before adding any functions to the “Macao One Account”. Chan also said that the functions the public used the most should be included in the app as they represent the services that the public needed the most.
Chan also pointed out that the government should also take senior citizens into account and therefore the “Macao One Account” should not have too many or too complicated functions, so that the elderly can also easily access public services via their mobile phone.
Three representative of the Macao New Chinese Youth Association (MNCYA) pose during yesterday’s press conference about their e-government satification survey, at its office on Avenida do Almirante Lacerda. – Photo: MNCYA
