government offices, they have user-friendly search functions, and they are able to provide up-to-date information. These results suggest that e-municipalities are being credited for their highly convenient features such as the ability of users to access their Web sites anytime and from anywhere, and their convenient search functions and very timely nature all of which are distinctive characteristics of the Internet.

In addition, in a self-assessment survey of the current status of the digitization of municipalities, a number of municipalities and public agencies felt that IT within public administrative agencies was either fully satisfactory or satisfactory. Only 0.1% of the respondents felt that IT within public administrative agencies and the digitization of the links between local public agencies, residents, and businesses were as a whole very satisfactory, while 20.4% feel that these were satisfactory (Exhibit 1-18).

With respect to the status of the measures related to the digitization of local public agencies such as the review of systems, organizations, and operation processes, the top two measures undertaken were the promotion of information disclosure (39.8%) and the promotion of information sharing (33.6%).

Furthermore, a self-assessment survey of the current status of e-municipalities (overall assessment) indicates that most local public agencies, which have undertaken the aforementioned two measure, tend to give themselves high marks, as most respondents feel that their present e-municipality is either very satisfactory or reasonably satisfactory.

In addition, in connection with how the digitization of municipalities has changed work for municipal employees, more than 40% of these employees felt that it has had either a very favorable impact or a favorable impact on their work in all areas including workload, quality of work, and speed of work. In particular, with respect to quality of work and speed of work, about 60% to 80% of the employees felt that digitization has had either a very favorable impact or a favorable impact. Given the foregoing, we can see that the promotion of the e-municipality has a positive effect on improving the quality of work and speeding up the work of municipal employees (Exhibit 1-19).

## Necessary Conditions for the Realization of E-Municipalities

According to a survey, the conditions that are considered necessary by local public agencies for the digitization of municipalities include securing agency-wide financial resources, securing human resources with specialized knowledge, and improvements in the information literacy of employees (Exhibit 1-20). In order to secure agency-wide financial sources, which is considered the most necessary condition, local public agencies have been making efforts to improve the efficiency of electronic public administration. In particular, the utilization of off-the-shelf packages is the most commonly used measure (34.0%) for creating an infrastructure and design for public administration, followed by joint development in partnership with other agencies (13.2%), agency-wide

Exhibit 1-19 How the Promotion of E-Municipalities Has Changed the Work of Municipal Employees

Source: Survey of Administrative Information Intensification in Local Government, MPHPT