A SWOT and PEST analysis of e-Government in Iran

The term electronic government (e-government) mainly refers to the information and communications technology (ICT) usage to modify structures and procedures of government agencies. This paper aims to evaluate the vision, the objectives and the strategic framework of e-Government in Iran. Rapidity, Reliability, Efficiency, Cost-effectiveness, Customer-orientation and Accessibility are the main guidelines for the development of e-government in Iran in order to provide quality services to users in the digital economy. In this study investigated five thrusts and six programs of e-governance in Iran. The development of e-Government involves three main relationships: Government to Citizen (G2C), Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Employees/Public Servants (G2E) and also employs the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) determinants to evaluate the current state of e-Government in Iran and its preparedness. Acknowledging the necessity of utilizing the new electronic, information, and communication technologies, the movement toward implementation of e-government in Iran has recently received the attention of authorities and policy makers. Many strengths and opportunities fuel the development of e-Government in Iran such as sound economic policies, political willingness, robust educational system to generate tech-savvy future employees and low cost of phone calls. Iran has continuously improved in order to prepare to deal with new threats and challenges such as the significant increase in the number cyber crimes, security and privacy concern.

Keywords:

e-Government , PEST analyse , SWOT analyse