eGA leads the twinning project of supporting digitalisation of Kyrgyzstan
eGA together with partners held on 21 April an event in Kyrgyzstan as part of the EU-funded twinning project “Support to Digitalisation Agenda in Kyrgyzstan” to provide an overview of the project and report on its implementation progress.
Kick-off event
Eduard Auer, Ambassador of the European Union to the Kyrgyz Republic, said in his welcome address: “With digital as a priority, it has become even more relevant for the EU to share its best practices, experience, expertise, industrial and research excellence to promote the Global Gateway initiative.”
Indira Sharshenova, Deputy Minister of Digital Development of the Kyrgyz Republic, highlighted the contribution of the European Union to the creation of a strong and reliable partnership between the EU countries and the Kyrgyz Republic, and thanked for providing support in the field of digitalisation of the country: “We hope that through joint efforts we will be able to successfully achieve the goals of the project.”
“In February and March of this year, a number of expert missions and an analysis of the scenario of the Sanarip Aimak automated information system and the current state of the electronic interoperability system Tunduk were carried out. Reliable data sources such as the population register and the cadastre were also considered. Based in these works, the need for a common e-government architecture was identified,” said the Deputy Minister of Digital Development, talking about the project.
During the event, the EU Member State Project Manager, Executive Director of eGA (Estonia) Hannes Astok noted that eGA has been cooperating with the government of the Kyrgyz Republic since 2016 and advising it on the implementation of the Tunduk secure digital data exchange platform. “With the implementation of the Tunduk platform, Kyrgyzstan has achieved good results in digitalisation, but there are still a number of obstacles that slow down the speed of the full implementation of solutions for e-government, digital services and building a digital society in general. Some of them have already been identified and should be taken into account during this project,” said Astok.
Also, in order to ensure a more sustainable and stable development of Kyrgyzstan and support the country’s strategic goals, it is necessary to strengthen cyber security. With the help of Estonian cyber experts, the project will offer the government of Kyrgyzstan to increase the capacity of institutions, create an appropriate management model and either develop or adjust a single standard for cybersecurity and ICT risk management.
Juhani Korhonen, Associate Project Leader (Ministry of Finance, Finland), stressed that Finland’s assistance will focus on the development and implementation of educational digital skills and tools to increase the availability of digital competence and literacy, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups.
Vittorio Vallero, Associate Project Manager (CSI-Piemonte, Italy), said that within the project Italy’s task ist o analyse data protection legislation and the legal framework in general, as well as develop recommendations and possible amendments to improve personal data protection standards in accordance with the GDPR. In addition, they provide advice and assistance to the government in implementing an online platform to inform the public about data protection, data privacy and citizens’ rights to data protection.
Background information:
The project “Support to Digitalisation Agenda in Kyrgyzstan” will run until 2023.
The project supports the government of Kyrgyzstan in promoting transparency and accountability through e-governance and is implemented as twinning project between the Kyrgyz Republic and a consortium of EU member states – Estonia, Finland and Italy.
The goal of the twinning project is to build the capacity of national authorities to govern and participate in e-government, promoting transparency and accountability.