Bangalore: A World Bank estimate says that as high as 85 per cent of e-government projects in developing countries are either "total or partial failures".

"It is estimated that approximately 35 per cent of e-government projects in developing countries are total failures, approximately 50 per cent are partial failures only some 15 per cent can be fully seen as successes," a senior World Bank official told a seminar on e-governance in Bangalore today (Nov 5, 2004).

Delivering the keynote address, the World Bank's Lead Informatics Specialist Robert Schware also said, "There are equal numbers of very sad statistics about the number of failed implementations in the US and Europe." In a response to reporters' questions later, Schware said that there are around 200 e-government projects in India; of them he believes about 110 are "scalable". Governments should draw lessons from failures so that resources are not wasted.

The WB is currently completing a study of national e-strategies across a group of 40 regionally representative countries with a view to mapping common policy focus areas and interventions across countries.

"There is consensus in the strategies that e-government can provide realistic and immediate benefits in terms of improved Government productivity, effectiveness and cost savings," he said.