Turkey.

Turkey's e-government efforts received new emphasis in the last three years. The election of a new government brought forward an agenda including public sector modernization using e-government. Turkey has since made considerable progress with e-government. This review identifies several strategic opportunities. One opportunity is to stimulate the provision of e-services and e-commerce by increasing access to high-speed Internet throughout the country. A second opportunity is to skip the initial stages of e-government applications -- characterized by isolated islands of development -- and instead promote a more "joined up" government. A third opportunity is to use the existing base of 46 million mobile telephones as a communication channel between the government and its citizens. The review also identifies several major challenges. One challenge is bridging the digital divide between urban and rural populations, men and women, and young and old. A second challenge is public sector modernization in terms of increased transparency and accountability. A third challenge is making sure that investments in e-government are valuable, i.e. that benefits are larger than costs.--Publisher's description.