Supported by the UN and the American Association for Public Administration, the two research institutions jointly conducted evaluation on world top 100 cities, based on 92 evaluation items such as degree of participation by citizens, security of information, online services, availability and content.

Seoul obtained a total of 73.48 points, the highest mark, and it is followed by Hong Kong (66.57 points), Singapore (62.97 points), New York (61.35 points), and Shanghai (58.00 points). Other top ten cities include Rome, Oakland, Jerusalem, Tokyo and Toronto. Six of top ten electronic government cities are in Asia, 2 in North America, and 1 each is in Europe and New Zealand.

Seoul received the highest points in online service ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore, and higher mark in citizens' participation than Rome. Seoul, however, rated third and fourth in availability and content, respectively.

"The evaluation on electronic government of top 100 cities this time was made objectively applying extensive and detailed appraisal criteria, overcoming the limitation of previous evaluations," said Director Kim Seong-tae of Global e-Policy.e-Government Institute.

Meanwhile, another evaluation made by the Global e-Policy.e-Government Institute on 15 largest cities and local governments in Korea applying the same criteria used for appraising world top 100 cities showed Busan gained the highest 67.98 points, which was followed by Gyeongsangnam-do Province, Daejeon, Incheon, and Jeollabuk-do Province in rank.

"Top 15 cities and local governments in Korea, except Seoul, obtained 53.12 points in evaluation on an average, a figure higher than average points of 52.85 earned by world top 15 cities," said a researcher at the institute.