Estonia Edges Toward Digital Government

Estonia Edges Toward Digital Government

News:

This Baltic nation has created a platform to make government administration completely digital.

Important Facts:

• Estonia has created one platform that supports electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communications across both the private and public sectors.
• The ambitious project will make government administration completely digital to reduce bureaucracy, increase transparency and boost economic growth.
• Citizens can monitor their data and see if any government or private institution accesses it.
• Several online services have been proposed such as when a new child is born neither of the parents would ever have to apply for anything: to get maternity leave, to get child support from the municipality, to get a kindergarten place, to put the name to the child etc.
• Estonians have embraced the system despite global concerns about data hacks.
• The country also has a backup plan to restore digital services in the event of invasion or severe cyberattack.
• Government also planning to launch e-residency program that lets entrepreneurs around the world register their businesses in Estonia and gain a foothold in the European Union
• There are few that can’t be done electronically in Estonia for instance marry, divorce or transfer property and that’s only because the government has decided it was important to turn up in person for some big life events.
• The platform is underpinned by software called X-Road, a decentralized data exchange system that links databases. Outgoing data is digitally signed and encrypted, and all incoming data is authenticated and logged.