e-Governance Academy recognises six promoters of the e-state

At the official reception of the e-state conference on 12 May the e-Governance Academy recognised six e-state promoters: Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan; Effecta Solutions, which establishes innovative service centres; and the City of Tartu and EMT, which brought m-parking to Estonia.

Recognition was earned for systematic work in the promotion of e-governance, for which Moldova and Armenia stood out, as well as for the exceptional results of Azerbaijan government and city of Tartu and the private sector in the development of both public services and e-services.

In presenting the recipients with the awards, e-Governance Academy CEO Arvo Ott said: “Our academy has been fostering e-governance in transition countries for more than a decade. We’re really pleased to see that our former students have become examples to others for their enthusiasm and are creating their own solutions that make using public services more convenient. We’re also happy to remind people of the success story of one of Estonia’s e-miracles – m-parking – and recognise those behind it: the City of Tartu and EMT.”

The e-Government Centre Moldova, which accepted the award on behalf of its country, is a perfect example of employees’ passion and open cooperation in the development of Moldovan e-governance. Its activities over the years have covered e-inclusion, the creation of e-services and the development of cyber security. Due to their valuable experience, experts from the centre have also been of help to the e-Governance Academy in recent years in promoting e-governance in other Eastern Partnership countries.

The e-Governance Academy recognised Armenia for creation of IT agency and for its development of innovative e-services. For example, the Armenian police inform those who have been caught speeding of their infringement by sending a video and bank link to their mobile phones. They are then given the choice of reviewing the video evidence or taking themselves straight to the e-bank to pay their fine.

Azerbaijan, which was recognised for its State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations, has created first-class centres bringing together public and private services and has adopted ‘state buses’ that deliver public services to residents in sparsely populated areas. Azerbaijan is also an example of how the Mobile ID created in Estonia has been further developed and swiftly implemented.

A significant contribution to raising the service level of the public sector has been made by the Serbian company Effecta Solution, whose service centre covering telephone, SMS and e-mail exchange is helping citizens obtain convenient information and communicate with the state and local authorities.

15 years ago, the foundations were laid in Estonia for an e-service without which no urbanised driver in the country – or indeed in many other countries – could imagine life today. EMT and the City of Tartu were the innovative team who changed our ideas of parking services forever when e-parking came to Tartu, then to the rest of Estonia, and finally to the world.

Founded in 2002, the e-Governance Academy is a development and analysis centre for the information society which has shared Estonia’s e-governance experience in more than 50 countries. It actively supports and works to develop e-governance and the information society around the globe.