e-Governance Academy to prepare action plan for development of e-state of São Tomé and Príncipe

In September, the representatives of e-Governance Academy (eGA) and the IT company Icefire AS visited São Tomé and Príncipe in order to map the condition of the ICT databases and registers of the small country located in the Gulf of Guinea. The overview to be prepared will serve as a basis for the development of an action plan for a coordinated development of the e-state in this country.

During the mission, the representatives of eGA and Icefire AS met the Prime Minister of the country and heads of important institutions in order to obtain an overview of the current efficiency of e-government. In addition, visits were paid to various public authorities in order to see the databases and the processing of documents in registers.

“At the moment each government authority develops their IT systems and databases independently and does not engage in cooperation very much. Therefore, there were very modern IT solutions in some public authorities and rather much paperwork in some other authorities,” Project Manager Martin Lään summed up the present state of affairs. According to him, the action plan to be developed by the e-Governance Academy and foreign experts will provide São Tomé and Príncipe with practical guidelines on how to develop the e-state, manage the process and act as an informed procurer of technological solutions. The action plan will be completed by December 2015.

The condition of São Tomé and Príncipe was mapped by eGA experts Hannes Astok, Arvo Ott and Martin Lään and the e-banking and e-Tax Board expert of Icefire AS, Aleksander Erlich.

The cooperation started in May this year, when São Tomé and Príncipe was represented at the level of a minister in an e-state conference organised by eGA in Tallinn and it continued in July with a visit of Patrice Emery Trovoado, the Prime Minister of the state, in the course of which the e-Governance Academy was also visited.