E-services in Ida-Virumaa and Leningrad
The public sector services in obtaining specific information and documents (that should face the needs of the citizens who are living in border areas) are not met the way they should be in the modern information society. The discrepancy between the citizens’ needs and the administrative capacity, especially if located on opposite sides of the border, results in major time and material losses, also in social tensions rising. Opportunities of using e-government solutions by public authorities both internally and across the border are underutilized.
It is important to prepare the concept and implement cooperative pilot projects to raise know-how and improve service provision, taking into account the needs to offer services on both sides of the border at the same quality level.
The aim of the “Increasing capacity of local governments in providing e-services in Ida-Virumaa-Leningrad oblast cross-border areas (e-G2C)” project is to increase the administrative capacity and e-readiness of local and regional authorities in providing socially significant public services through cooperation and implementation of e-government solutions in cross-border region.
The project has three main objectives:
- Develop e-solutions empowering the archives of border municipalities to provide e-services;
- Create and implement socially relevant e-services in the territories of the partner municipalities;
- Disseminate informationon the availability of new e-services in Estonia, Russia and Latvia
Project activities include a detailed analysis and development of a common approach of using public e-services. The analyses cover citizens’ demand on public e-services as well as local authorities’ capacities on public service provision. Following the analysis, a detailed plan for increasing the administrative capacity of local authorities is prepared. Furthermore, an e-document exchange agreement and a digital signature acceptance agreement are signed between the cross-border partner municipalities.
Preparation and creation of e-services in project partner municipalities is done with the aim of having one common system for two services on e-archive data, but also general know-how about e-services provision in local authorities by working group experts and through study visits to partner municipalities. The e-services are tested and implemented, feedback is gathered and a handbook in three languages (English, Russian, Latvian) is disseminated in the partner regions.
