Kyrgyz Republic to test Estonia’s X-road

e-Goverenance Academy conducted today, 4 February in Bishkek the press conference and the seminar for local officials for introducing X-road interoperability system and the project “Supporting Service-Oriented e-Government Interoperability in Kyrgyzstan”.

This project will allow the Kyrgyz Republic to perform testing of one of the most reliable and secure solutions for inter-institutional information exchange and provision of e-services to the population.

Moreover, Taalai Baiterekov, Director of the Centre for e-Governance of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic presented an overview of the national e-governance development activities planned for this year.

Taalai Baiterekov noted that the “Programme of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic for Implementation of e-Governance in State Executive Power Bodies and Local Authority Bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Years 2014-2017” focuses on the following seven priority aspects: provision of electronic state services, creation of a nationwide electronic governance system, perfection of the regulatory legislation, assurance of both the financial and economic efficiency of ICT projects, development of personnel resources and installation of a management structure.

“As a result of implementing this Programme, 26 state services are to be provided electronically by the year 2017,” he noted, adding that the Centre for e-Governance of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is currently looking for the most suitable systemic interoperability solution to serve as the basis for commencement of e-services and e-government development.

Arvo Ott, the CEO of the Estonian e-Governance Academy, spoke about the project that is being conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic by the Academy in cooperation with the Centre for e-Governance of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, initially to create an X-Road interoperability solution prototype and to develop test e-services.

This will allow the Kyrgyz Republic to perform testing of one of the most reliable and secure solutions for inter-institutional information exchange and provision of e-services to the population.

“Estonia has been using an interoperability system for 14 years and it has helped us in drastically reducing the level of corruption, stimulating the economy and improving managerial effectiveness. In Estonia today you can found a company online in just 18 minutes and submit your income tax statement in a mere 5 minutes,” Arvo Ott said.

During the project implementation, a legal basis will be established for introduction of a tiered data exchange solution and the necessary strategies and documents will be developed to describe the accompanying IT architecture. Then at least 4 state institutions will connect to this data exchange system to develop some initial e-services and to ensure that the system functions in a stable manner when performing daily national governance tasks. The final stage of the project will be completed in the summer of 2016.

Creation of X-road interoperability solution as the basis for e-governance in Kyrgyzstan is supported by USAID and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia. The budget for the “Supporting Service-Oriented e-Government Interoperability in Kyrgyzstan” totals 500,000 euros.