Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Swiss make good use of e-government services

Taxes are one of many government services available to the Swiss online Keystone

The Swiss government has said its open data policy is paying off among citizens, who have an advanced use of e-government services compared to other countries.

Pointing to a recently released study, the government stated that more than two-thirds of its citizens had used some kind of open government portal in the past year in the hopes that doing so would have a “positive influence” on leaders’ effectiveness.

According to the comparative study published by the Berlin-based D21 Initiative, 69% of Swiss citizens interviewed said they used electronic government – “e-government” – services in 2015, an 11% increase over 2012. Services studied included mobile access to government information and free access to public data.

Switzerland showed the greatest increase in e-government service use of all the countries studied. Usage increased by 6% in Austria and by 5% in Sweden, while usage decreased in Germany. About 70% of Swiss interviewed said they had taken advantage of free government access to public data at least once in the past.

In addition, the D21 study looked at user satisfaction with e-government services in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Sweden. Switzerland also showed the highest scores for user satisfaction; however, respondents said that e-government services could be improved through better monitoring and usability.

Visibility was another potential area of improvement for Swiss e-government portals, as the study revealed that users are not aware of many of the services offered.

The D21 study, titled “eGovernment Monitor 2015”, was published at the end of July.

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR