On February 10, Jaanika Merilo, an advisor to Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius, met with participants and graduates of Good Governance, a program for an innovative approach to governance, at Lviv Business School.
Jaanika shared the Estonian experience of e-governance implementation since she herself comes from Estonia. The economic advisor highlighted the critical success factors in e-governance implementation:
– The government should support its developers
– The government should minimize its unnecessary interference
– The government should stimulate services and customer care
Jaanika mentioned the following information society indicators that already exist in Estonia:
– 100% of schools and government organizations are ICT equipped;
– 97% of businesses use computers;
– 76% of families have computers and Internet access at home;
– Entire country is covered with a broadband connection, 3G and 4G networks are available;
– 1,007 public WiFi areas;
– Internet access is deemed a social right;
– 99.8% of bank transfers are performed electronically;
– 95% of income tax declarations are made via the e-Tax Board;
– 31.4% of votes during the 2014 elections were cast over the Internet;
– 66% of the population participated in the census via the Internet.
When asked whether it is reasonable to compare the scales of Ukraine and Estonia from the viewpoint of effective e-governance implementation, Jaanika answered, “The size of a country does not matter for creating an e-development strategy. It’s hard to say how much time Ukraine might need to implement e-governance. It all depends on political will at all levels, which is currently missing,” summarized the economic advisor.
