Even during the current regional economic crisis, Latin American
governments seem to be investing substantial amounts of money in
e-government technology and systems at national, state and local
levels.  About how much are they really spending and which countries
are the leaders in this trend?  I am looking for relatively recent
data and/or projections.

Tim,

I believe that Mexico is one of the leaders in this.  Two government
officials and one CEO from Mexico came to speak at the Software
Development Forum about this.  You may be able to contact them and ask
them this information directly.

You should check out this site.  It may even have their presentations.
http://www.sdforum.org/p/calEvent.asp?CID=926&mo=10&yr=2002

Claudietta

Thanks, Claudietta, this is quite interesting!  Intuitively, and from
my travels and discussions, it seems that Brazil, Mexico, Chile have
invested an enormous amount in e-tax collection, e-procurement,
e-customs, e-voting and digital divide.  Unlike the Y2K crisis, when I
could call one director in each government and get a centralized
budget and update on status, few of the smaller governments have a
CIO/CTO or e-gov manager, unlike the US, Mexico and Canada.  Very
rarely is there a central budget line crossing departments, levels
(and political parties -- typically it seems that initiatives die of
neglect with a change in government).  I guess that calling my Y2K
contacts and the folks you suggested may be the only place to start --
the vendors are not going to give a scholar their sales projections!