E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies.

Various countries, including Malaysia, are implementing electronic government, generally known as “e-government”. The status of e-government implementation in Malaysia is widely discussed as to the potential of e-government implementation towards the public and business. The implementation of e-government was initiated by the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996.

One of the e-government that had been introduced in Malaysia is Electronic Procurement (eP) Project. As for the Electronic Procurement (eP) project, the aim is to re-engineer, automate and transform current procurement system. The project would cover central contract, tender, and the direct purchase. Besides that, the use of eP will increase transparency, saves time and money while encourage suppliers to go electronic and join K-Economy.

The electronic procurement project has taken off with the introduction of ePerolehan and can be accessed at www.eperolehan.com.my. It is the government’s initiate to take its procurement exercises inline. With ePerolehan, all suppliers can obtain tender documents and submit bids on the internet. The suppliers are equipped with smartcards that enable them to transact with the ePerolehan system. Two modules in ePerolehan system are central contract and direct purchase, and have been fully functional and used by the government in its procurement exercise.

With the introduction of ePerolehan system, it hopes that the system could streamline the processes and procedures as well as improve efficiency and productivity, while lowering the government’s operational cost over time. For the suppliers, it could translate into new market, additional revenue and higher margins. Besides that, ePerolehan allows supplier to present their products on the internet, receive, manage and process purchase orders and eventually receive payment from government agencies via internet.

This project started in year 1999 and as of 2006, total active registered suppliers is 92,106 where 26,054 enable suppliers. The Direct Purchase(DP) Catalogue increased by 33.4% and enable suppliers increased by 193% since July 2004. This shows that the implementation of the E-Procurement had been adopted by the suppliers.