This document summarizes Estonia's e-government organization and policies. It outlines that Estonia has high internet penetration rates and digital services usage. The government is highly digitized, holding paperless meetings and having over 90% of tax declarations filed online. Estonia's e-government is coordinated through an Informatics Council and policies aim for citizen-orientation, private sector leadership, and transparency. Key aspects that enabled Estonia's success include stable organizational structures, political will, legal frameworks, and interoperable ICT architecture.

1. Vinnytsia 07.2012
eGovernment in Estonia –
organization, policies, frameworks
Arvo Ott, PhD,
arvo.ott@ega.ee
e-Governance Academy
www.ega.ee

2. eEstonia
• 76 % of population are Internet users
• 63 % of the households have a computer
at home, 82 % of home computers
connected to Internet.
• over 700 Public Internet Access Points in
Estonia, 51 per 100 000 people.
• More than 1 100 000 smart-card type ID-
cards issued
• 94% (citizens) of tax declarations were e-
declarations (2011), 97% businesses
• 94% of banking transaction on-line. 1
place in Internet Banking – (next are
Norway, Nederlands, New Zealand….
Finland in the 6th place)
• 24th (all 134, Ukraine 75) place in Network
Readiness index 2012.

3. eEstonia
• In August 2000, the Government of Estonia changed its
Cabinet meetings to paperless sessions using a web-based
document system.

4. Balanced e-Governance
Combination of electronic services and participatory services
e- GOVERNMENT e-DEMOCRACY
Transaction of user-oriented Digitally conveyed information
services offered by government (transparency) and the political
that are based on information and influence (participation) exerted by
communication technologies. citizens and business on the opinion-
forming processes of public – state
and non-state –institutions

5. eGovernment example:
Parental benefit – best eGov service in 2004
(interoperability of 5 information systems from 5
goverment institutions)

6. Tax declarations on-line
91 93
100 86 89
90 82
74
80
70 59
60
50 36 % e-declarations
40
30 21
20 9
10
0
00
01
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
02
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20

7. eParticipation example:
E-Voting in Estonia (140
846 e-voters in 2011!)

9. eGovernment Policy / Strategy

10. Questions:
• IT policy as the driving force for change?
• Centralized vers. decentralized? Coordination
vers. direct management?
• Implementation of strategies
• Organization
– Coordination tools:
• Regulations
• Budget planning
• Human resource planning
• “soft methods” – training, discussion, awareness building
etc.

11. Driving forces of eGov
• Stable and functioning organizational setup for
coordination.
• Leadership and political will.
• Fixed info-political principles.
• PPP, good telecom infrastructure and high level
of eBanking
• Supporting legal and fiscal frameworks.
• Interoperable ICT architecture.

12. Framework
C
I O Parliament
N A A
F L
O C Government
I
R T T
M
A
I
O
I Ministries
T
I N O
O N
N A
G
P R
P
O E Informatics Council
L E L
I M
C A
E
Y N N
T

13. Example: Fixed info-political principles in Estonia
• Citizen (customer) orientation
• Leading role for the private sector
• Efficient and transparent public sector.
eDemocracy and participation.
• Functioning model for protection of personal
data
• Measures against digital divide (ID-cards
example…)
• Neutrality concerning technological platforms
• etc.

17. Government
County
County Local
Local
Ministries governments governments
governments governments
Ministries
IT managers Representative
Management
representatives &
IT managers of Subordinate Local government
Subordinate IT councils
ministries agencies
agencies of counties associations
IT managers
Council Representative
representative
IT councils of
ministries Councils
directors
Informatics IC secretariat
Council
ICT work groups
ICT work groups IT manager of counties
of ministries Department of MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC
State Information AFFAIRS AND
COMMUNICATIONS
Systems (RISO)
Informatics
Centre

18. State Chancellery /
Ministry
ICT work group eGov Center ICT work group
of ministries (CIO office) of regional
development
•Regulation initiatives
•eGov budget planning
•monitoring of implementation
•Interoperability Framework agreements
Ministries
Ministries
Reform initiatives
ICT Budget
project procurement,
CIO-s eGov imple- supervision,
menting institution implementation
systems
maintenance
IT Businesses end user training
IT Businesses
IT Businesses
IT Businesses

19. • Government Committee “Estonian Informatics
Council” - advice to the Government on Information
Policy matters
• All ministries (11 ministries) have CIOs. Ministries are
relatively independent. Boards and inspectorates are
subordinated to the ministries. There are IT councils of
ministries who are coordinating the work in their fields of
responsibility.
• All County Governments (15) have also CIOs, who
manage the work of IT-councils of counties. County
Governments are state bodies. There are several
municipalities (local governments with independent
budgets) in the counties (altogether ca. 220). County IT
councils have members from municipalities.

20. Nature of document Name of Document Nature of regulation
Policy and strategy eGov Strategy, Infopolitical agreement,
documents Interoperability strong recommendation
Framework
Laws and sub-acts Databases acts, Compulsory
Personal Data
Protection Act, Digital
Signature Act etc.
Framework descriptions Architecture Strong recommendation
descriptions
Interoperability Related Documents, digital Advise and
Standards signature, security, recommendation
message transfer etc.

21. Budgeting
• Separate article of state budget: expenses for IT-
subdivided into HW, SW and project work ordered
from outside of government structures. For the last 8
years this budget has formed about 1% of the state
budget.
• All ministries, county governments and boards have
independent IT budgets which are planned in
cooperation of all CIOs.
• For joint actions of several ministries the IT budget is
often included in the budget of the ministry that is
coordinating the work.

22. National chip-based Identity Card
Issuing authority:
Estonian Citizenship and
Migration Board
Service contractor:
TRÜB Switzerland
Start of issue:January 1, 2002
Conformance with:
ICAO Doc. 9303 part 3 Inside 16 Kb RSA crypto chip are :
2 private keys; authentication certificate;
digital signature certificate;
personal data file

23. Databases / information systems Banks
5
• Ühispank
Population Register
Insurance Register
Health Insurance
Vehicle Register
Tallinna Vesi IS
Eesti Energia IS
National Pension
• Hansapank
Register
• Krediidipank
• Sampo Pank
• Nordea Pank
Security Security Security Security Security Security Security
server server server server server server server
Internet - X-road
Security
Security Popul. ~1,3 mil. server
:: … :: Central
server Central server I
:: E-institution – institution view :: monitoring
:: E-county – county view ::
National Databases
http://www.riik.ee/arr/
:: Governmental Portal – Your Estonia ::
Central server II HelpDesk ID – card
Register
Institutional view of the state Thematic view of the state
www.riik.ee www.eesti.ee
1000000
KIT EIT AIT
Citizen view Enterpriser view Public servant view X-road certification center
Tools centrally developed by the State, X-road center Certification
i.e. the State Portal Center

24. Lessons learned - 1
• Cooperation and coordination is the key, technology
is the simplest part. Important role of Centre in
coordination of the actions.
• Training of CIO-s (IT managers) and partners from
private sector
• Medium push from legal framework
• Figuring out what might be the motivation
• Procurement procedures and rules can destroy
initial project plans
• Step-by-step approach, no need to enter to
“business” of the “back-office”

25. Lessons learned - 2
• Process from operational technical system to wide
implementation takes 2-3 years – “honeymoon period”
of the project
• Money, spent once for development of basic
components of the architecture will give high profit in
the phase of development of single e-services… but it
will be clear only after several years… and this might
not be the motivation for public institutions
• Driving force is often not from the top management of
public institution but somewhere else – find this
person …

26. Thank you for your
attention!
Arvo Ott, PhD
Director
eGovernance Academy
arvo.ott@ega.ee
www.ega.ee