Presentation by Ms Kristiina Ojuland in Sofia, Bulgaria
IT and Development - The Political Aspects
Estonian Seminar
Transition to Information Society
Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Eight years ago we saw the launching of the computerization of the Estonian school system -- The Tiger’s Leap. By the year 2000, the goal of computerizing all Estonian schools had been achieved. The success of the whole Estonian information and communication technology (ICT) development program is well known. According to the World Economic Forum’s The Global Information Technology Report 2003-2004, Estonia ranks thirteenth in use of ICT by the Government, and third in the political and regulatory environment sub-index. So, in this presentation, I will concentrate on the political aspects of establishing and developing an information society.
In the beginning of the 1990s, we were confronted with the daunting task of rebuilding our country after 50 years of Soviet occupation.
As a society, we were quite well aware of the fact that in order to catch up with developed countries, we did not need to achieve the level they were at, but had to identify the most promising trends of growth and to follow those. And it was obvious, that the central trend was the emerging information society. IT was and still is an expensive investment. In order to be successful we had to do two things. First, we had to break the notion, that the state will take care of everything and we had to encourage private businesses to employ as much information technology as possible. It was not that difficult since a lot of procedures had to be built up from scratch.
Our Tiger’s Leap programme was originally meant to connect all Estonian schools to the Internet. Its meaning, however, far exceeded the original intent. The implementation of the Tiger’s Leap provided us with the opportunity to propagate the use of ICT in our whole society. It is interesting to note that this provided our nation’s political leadership with a simple and popular means for advocating the modernizing of Estonian society. This, in turn, gave Estonia’s various political parties an opportunity to agree upon the importance of investing into the future of our nation. Thus, the development of ICT surpassed, in significance, everyday domestic political struggles. This was a major contributing factor to the success of the ICT development program.
There are several basic political principles, which we have adapted for our new endeavours.
Firstly, the role of the state as an active instigator and implementer, especially in the primary phases of new development programs. Presently, the private sector plays an 80% role in the Estonian economy, and quite often, we have to debate the matter of what function the state fills in such a situation. We have to admit, that the Estonian market, with its population of 1.4 million, is a small one. Within both the federal and local government sector, the energetic implementation of ICT solutions helps to overcome several problems, which are dependent upon the smallness of our market, yet helps to create a critical mass of offered services. Many government decisions create an appropriate environment for the further development of private sector services.
Estonia was the first country in the world in which the cabinet started holding paper-free meetings. The fact that the state tries to regulate not yesterday’s, but tomorrow’s solutions, should stimulate firms competing for government orders to focus upon new, innovative solutions. This, in turn, helps to make these firms also competitive outside of Estonia. ICT helps to promote a "slim" government, in the true sense of the word, by offering "self service" to citizens in the spheres, which are connected with the passing on of information, and giving government officials the opportunity to devote themselves to the core of their assignments. It has been estimated, that governmental administrative officials spend 15% of their working hours upon technical communication with the public, and over 10% upon technical communication with other government agencies.
A good example is the route that various Estonian administrative structures have, over the years, taken to integrate the traditional census registry with the microchip equipped multifunctional ID card, and the digital signature. The replacing of Estonian passports, which began two years ago, accompanied with the beginning of the program to issue new ID cards, and the implementation of the digital signature, have created a basis for the quick expansion of ICT services. It is essential that we implement the microchip-equipped ID card into the digital signature system. In Estonia, a document with a digital signature is legally useable in all situations and can be used for the confirmation of other documents. For signing and archiving purposes, a free-of-charge website has been created on the Internet for ID card possessors. Current election legislation includes an ID card based e-voting option for the 2005 and following elections, provided that all crucial issues, the most important being the prevention of fraud, are solved by that time. Presently, the ID card can already be used as a public transport payment card in two of Estonia’s biggest cities.
Secondly, public-private partnership. The intensive co-operative activity, which began with the computerization of our school system, has continued in Look@World, a project aimed at resolving various ICT development problems in our society. The initiative came from Estonian private firms, which, with the aim of promoting our information society, have contributed sums that equal the government’s ICT investment. Until the digital signature was implemented, Estonians dealt with the Revenue Department, and various other government agencies, via their electronic banking service, which had been the intermediary in their relationship with various government agencies. State and private sector monies were combined when the IT College was created, in which, students are offered a great many private sector scholarships.
Thirdly, transparency and openness. All major Estonian developments in the ICT sphere have taken place in conjunction with open debate. In a small community like Estonia, this offers the best opportunities for encompassing everyone who has something interesting to contribute. The e-Government and other similar projects were instrumental arguments in the discussions connected with legislative implementation of the freedom of information law. It is one of the most radical in the world. The home pages of our various government agencies, for instance, post the wages of their employees, the early phases of proposed legislation, and specific government projects. The making of cabinet decisions is observable in real time by following the progress of its official meetings. The cabinet e-portal has the sub-division "I Decide Today", through which citizens can make proposals to the cabinet, and participate in the debates, which ensue.
We can soon claim, that a developed Internet connection with the citizens has become a widely accepted composite of democracy.
Fourthly, the efforts to reduce the societal digital divide. A recent, very thorough study shows that in Estonia, as elsewhere in the world, pensioners, middle-aged people, and older blue-collar workers have a problem keeping up with the rest of society. And people in more remote regions tend to be left behind.
Just a little over 38% of Estonian homes are equipped with computers, which does not place Estonia especially high in the European "hit parade". But, if we take into consideration the more than 700 public Internet centres, then we are one of the foremost countries in Europe. More than 200 wi-fi areas cover not only the national airport and Tallinn’s City Hall Square, but also several other popular places, and as a rule, they are free of charge. Even a very specific road sign, signifying a wi-fi area, has been adopted.
The hinterlands of Estonia have not been forgotten either. For these rural areas, a very specific program, Külatee (Country Lane) has been adopted. This, again, is a joint effort incorporating both the state and private sectors. The aforementioned study shows that more than 47% of the populace actively uses the internet.
To leap on from this stage, people primarily need to be offered new services, especially those geared for older people, that directly give people the opportunity to save money, or which reduce physical exertion. There is plenty of room here for the efforts of both the state and the private sector.
Fifthly, ensuring the existence of strong international competition in the private sector. Thanks to the ongoing competition between three mobile telephone networks, the opening up of fixed line telephone networks to competition, the increased use of various non-line Internet connections, the Internet services offered by cable television firms, and many other factors, we can, today, talk about indicators, which correspond to those of average European Union development. The integration of the e-mail and SMS message systems has created a correspondence system, which has increased the efficiency of our whole society. The best example comes from the banking industry. There were no real banks in Soviet occupied Estonia, so that, when Estonia regained its independence, many private banks were established. After the inevitable banking crises, the ones that survived, among them Hansapank, the largest bank in the Baltics, built up their operations by embracing the latest ICT developments. 62% of our Internet users conduct their everyday banking via the Internet.
In Estonia, we also stress the significance of one more principle -- technical progress must not be made a fiscal factor. This means, that we have not pumped large sums into the state budget with the licensing of new generation mobile telephone technology. At the same time, we are also giving non-line Internet connection an opportunity to find its place within this process.
Sixthly, enhanced international co-operation. I can claim that we have, in every way, supported the achievement of the ICT goals, which were established within the framework of the Lisbon process. Although we are not yet a European Union Member State, we nevertheless recognize the significance of these principles. The e-Europe 2002 Action Plan has been followed up with e-Europe 2005. This also encompasses the Candidate States. But, at first, our role is quite limited, although Estonia’s ICT potential would actually allow us to do much more.
One of the fashionable topics of discussion today is about the benefits of ICT investments. Do they really speed up economic development? Do they really help to modernize society? While academicians have not yet provided us with definite answers, the preliminary consensus was clearly evident at the World Summit of Information Society, in Geneva, last December. The Millenium Goals of development and poverty alleviation were directly tied to the development of an information society.
Thus, tied to the general development of the world’s various societies, and given the inevitability of unequal development, the development of ICT in Estonia has a direct impact upon our foreign policy postures, which are helping to convince international actors that ICT has a definite potential for general and economic growth.
Helping other countries to build their information societies and introducing e-governance is a mutually beneficial way of moving forward. We have a wealth of experiences to share, not only in the ICT sphere, but also regarding issues concerning societal transition. And we are more than happy to share this wealth of knowledge.
Interest to our experiences has been growing, as other countries are becoming aware of our success. To meet this growing interest, I have recently requested that our e-governance academy, which is a joint undertaking of our government, the UNDP, and the OSI, would start exploring the possibilities for venturing outside of its originally defined space of the CIS, the CEE, and the Balkan countries.
Estonia has played a significant role in international efforts to to regulate cyber space. Within the framework of the Council of Europe, the adoption of the Cybercrime Convention is just the first step. It is essential that democratic principles are adhered to, and that the freedoms of speech and press are maintained. And very definitely, the generally recognised principles of human dignity and protection of minors also apply to the new media. I hope that the Council of Europe will play an important role in the quest for future steps needed to be taken in this area.
In conclusion, I would like to stress that the Estonian experience may be useful for Bulgaria, and that I am glad to see your determination to succeed. Hopefully, Bulgarians have found their studies in the Estonian e-Governance Academy useful. And I sincerely hope that our meeting here today will lay the way for the next steps in our co-operative endeavours.
Thank you.
Estonian Seminar
Transition to Information Society
Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Eight years ago we saw the launching of the computerization of the Estonian school system -- The Tiger’s Leap. By the year 2000, the goal of computerizing all Estonian schools had been achieved. The success of the whole Estonian information and communication technology (ICT) development program is well known. According to the World Economic Forum’s The Global Information Technology Report 2003-2004, Estonia ranks thirteenth in use of ICT by the Government, and third in the political and regulatory environment sub-index. So, in this presentation, I will concentrate on the political aspects of establishing and developing an information society.
In the beginning of the 1990s, we were confronted with the daunting task of rebuilding our country after 50 years of Soviet occupation.
As a society, we were quite well aware of the fact that in order to catch up with developed countries, we did not need to achieve the level they were at, but had to identify the most promising trends of growth and to follow those. And it was obvious, that the central trend was the emerging information society. IT was and still is an expensive investment. In order to be successful we had to do two things. First, we had to break the notion, that the state will take care of everything and we had to encourage private businesses to employ as much information technology as possible. It was not that difficult since a lot of procedures had to be built up from scratch.
Our Tiger’s Leap programme was originally meant to connect all Estonian schools to the Internet. Its meaning, however, far exceeded the original intent. The implementation of the Tiger’s Leap provided us with the opportunity to propagate the use of ICT in our whole society. It is interesting to note that this provided our nation’s political leadership with a simple and popular means for advocating the modernizing of Estonian society. This, in turn, gave Estonia’s various political parties an opportunity to agree upon the importance of investing into the future of our nation. Thus, the development of ICT surpassed, in significance, everyday domestic political struggles. This was a major contributing factor to the success of the ICT development program.
There are several basic political principles, which we have adapted for our new endeavours.
Firstly, the role of the state as an active instigator and implementer, especially in the primary phases of new development programs. Presently, the private sector plays an 80% role in the Estonian economy, and quite often, we have to debate the matter of what function the state fills in such a situation. We have to admit, that the Estonian market, with its population of 1.4 million, is a small one. Within both the federal and local government sector, the energetic implementation of ICT solutions helps to overcome several problems, which are dependent upon the smallness of our market, yet helps to create a critical mass of offered services. Many government decisions create an appropriate environment for the further development of private sector services.
Estonia was the first country in the world in which the cabinet started holding paper-free meetings. The fact that the state tries to regulate not yesterday’s, but tomorrow’s solutions, should stimulate firms competing for government orders to focus upon new, innovative solutions. This, in turn, helps to make these firms also competitive outside of Estonia. ICT helps to promote a "slim" government, in the true sense of the word, by offering "self service" to citizens in the spheres, which are connected with the passing on of information, and giving government officials the opportunity to devote themselves to the core of their assignments. It has been estimated, that governmental administrative officials spend 15% of their working hours upon technical communication with the public, and over 10% upon technical communication with other government agencies.
A good example is the route that various Estonian administrative structures have, over the years, taken to integrate the traditional census registry with the microchip equipped multifunctional ID card, and the digital signature. The replacing of Estonian passports, which began two years ago, accompanied with the beginning of the program to issue new ID cards, and the implementation of the digital signature, have created a basis for the quick expansion of ICT services. It is essential that we implement the microchip-equipped ID card into the digital signature system. In Estonia, a document with a digital signature is legally useable in all situations and can be used for the confirmation of other documents. For signing and archiving purposes, a free-of-charge website has been created on the Internet for ID card possessors. Current election legislation includes an ID card based e-voting option for the 2005 and following elections, provided that all crucial issues, the most important being the prevention of fraud, are solved by that time. Presently, the ID card can already be used as a public transport payment card in two of Estonia’s biggest cities.
Secondly, public-private partnership. The intensive co-operative activity, which began with the computerization of our school system, has continued in Look@World, a project aimed at resolving various ICT development problems in our society. The initiative came from Estonian private firms, which, with the aim of promoting our information society, have contributed sums that equal the government’s ICT investment. Until the digital signature was implemented, Estonians dealt with the Revenue Department, and various other government agencies, via their electronic banking service, which had been the intermediary in their relationship with various government agencies. State and private sector monies were combined when the IT College was created, in which, students are offered a great many private sector scholarships.
Thirdly, transparency and openness. All major Estonian developments in the ICT sphere have taken place in conjunction with open debate. In a small community like Estonia, this offers the best opportunities for encompassing everyone who has something interesting to contribute. The e-Government and other similar projects were instrumental arguments in the discussions connected with legislative implementation of the freedom of information law. It is one of the most radical in the world. The home pages of our various government agencies, for instance, post the wages of their employees, the early phases of proposed legislation, and specific government projects. The making of cabinet decisions is observable in real time by following the progress of its official meetings. The cabinet e-portal has the sub-division "I Decide Today", through which citizens can make proposals to the cabinet, and participate in the debates, which ensue.
We can soon claim, that a developed Internet connection with the citizens has become a widely accepted composite of democracy.
Fourthly, the efforts to reduce the societal digital divide. A recent, very thorough study shows that in Estonia, as elsewhere in the world, pensioners, middle-aged people, and older blue-collar workers have a problem keeping up with the rest of society. And people in more remote regions tend to be left behind.
Just a little over 38% of Estonian homes are equipped with computers, which does not place Estonia especially high in the European "hit parade". But, if we take into consideration the more than 700 public Internet centres, then we are one of the foremost countries in Europe. More than 200 wi-fi areas cover not only the national airport and Tallinn’s City Hall Square, but also several other popular places, and as a rule, they are free of charge. Even a very specific road sign, signifying a wi-fi area, has been adopted.
The hinterlands of Estonia have not been forgotten either. For these rural areas, a very specific program, Külatee (Country Lane) has been adopted. This, again, is a joint effort incorporating both the state and private sectors. The aforementioned study shows that more than 47% of the populace actively uses the internet.
To leap on from this stage, people primarily need to be offered new services, especially those geared for older people, that directly give people the opportunity to save money, or which reduce physical exertion. There is plenty of room here for the efforts of both the state and the private sector.
Fifthly, ensuring the existence of strong international competition in the private sector. Thanks to the ongoing competition between three mobile telephone networks, the opening up of fixed line telephone networks to competition, the increased use of various non-line Internet connections, the Internet services offered by cable television firms, and many other factors, we can, today, talk about indicators, which correspond to those of average European Union development. The integration of the e-mail and SMS message systems has created a correspondence system, which has increased the efficiency of our whole society. The best example comes from the banking industry. There were no real banks in Soviet occupied Estonia, so that, when Estonia regained its independence, many private banks were established. After the inevitable banking crises, the ones that survived, among them Hansapank, the largest bank in the Baltics, built up their operations by embracing the latest ICT developments. 62% of our Internet users conduct their everyday banking via the Internet.
In Estonia, we also stress the significance of one more principle -- technical progress must not be made a fiscal factor. This means, that we have not pumped large sums into the state budget with the licensing of new generation mobile telephone technology. At the same time, we are also giving non-line Internet connection an opportunity to find its place within this process.
Sixthly, enhanced international co-operation. I can claim that we have, in every way, supported the achievement of the ICT goals, which were established within the framework of the Lisbon process. Although we are not yet a European Union Member State, we nevertheless recognize the significance of these principles. The e-Europe 2002 Action Plan has been followed up with e-Europe 2005. This also encompasses the Candidate States. But, at first, our role is quite limited, although Estonia’s ICT potential would actually allow us to do much more.
One of the fashionable topics of discussion today is about the benefits of ICT investments. Do they really speed up economic development? Do they really help to modernize society? While academicians have not yet provided us with definite answers, the preliminary consensus was clearly evident at the World Summit of Information Society, in Geneva, last December. The Millenium Goals of development and poverty alleviation were directly tied to the development of an information society.
Thus, tied to the general development of the world’s various societies, and given the inevitability of unequal development, the development of ICT in Estonia has a direct impact upon our foreign policy postures, which are helping to convince international actors that ICT has a definite potential for general and economic growth.
Helping other countries to build their information societies and introducing e-governance is a mutually beneficial way of moving forward. We have a wealth of experiences to share, not only in the ICT sphere, but also regarding issues concerning societal transition. And we are more than happy to share this wealth of knowledge.
Interest to our experiences has been growing, as other countries are becoming aware of our success. To meet this growing interest, I have recently requested that our e-governance academy, which is a joint undertaking of our government, the UNDP, and the OSI, would start exploring the possibilities for venturing outside of its originally defined space of the CIS, the CEE, and the Balkan countries.
Estonia has played a significant role in international efforts to to regulate cyber space. Within the framework of the Council of Europe, the adoption of the Cybercrime Convention is just the first step. It is essential that democratic principles are adhered to, and that the freedoms of speech and press are maintained. And very definitely, the generally recognised principles of human dignity and protection of minors also apply to the new media. I hope that the Council of Europe will play an important role in the quest for future steps needed to be taken in this area.
In conclusion, I would like to stress that the Estonian experience may be useful for Bulgaria, and that I am glad to see your determination to succeed. Hopefully, Bulgarians have found their studies in the Estonian e-Governance Academy useful. And I sincerely hope that our meeting here today will lay the way for the next steps in our co-operative endeavours.
Thank you.
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