This article examines the development and usage of e-government in Malaysia. The history of public administration reform in Malaysia demonstrates the government’s willingness to experiment with innovations seen as improving the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of public services. Thus, e-government has been enthusiastically promoted by the Malaysian government and has spread across most government organisations at central and subnational levels. The article provides details of a range of services both within government and for society that are available in e-government modes. However, there are challenges to the development of e-government including adherence to traditional models of service delivery, resistance to organisational culture change by officials, preference for counter services by clients and constraints on the availability of information technology training. Mobile phones are now seen as a new way to encourage citizens to use e-government on a regular basis.

An integral component of public management reform in Korea has been e-government, a field in which Korea has been a pioneer and in which it is the world leader. This article examines the Korean model of public management reform in the context of the developmental state and democratisation to describe and explain the emergence and expansion of e-government practices. The growth of e-government is tracked and the crucial role of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security delineated. Also covered are Government for Citizens initiatives, the provision of particular services, the mushrooming use of smart phones and emerging patterns of citizen participation, especially as related to local-level governance. The article demonstrates how much can be achieved in e-government and provides a model from which other countries can choose appropriate practices.