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President Toomas Hendrik Ilves foreword to Estonian ICT Demo Center Newsletter

22.03.2012

ee-logoToomas Hendrik Ilves,
President of the Republic of Estonia


"Today, 98% of Estonians under 35 use the internet regularly and systematically. This, I submit, represents an altogether different population than a generation ago, a population that already demands an altogether different approach from its government.

The first thing to get right is to understand that the internet is not paper. Simple transference of the logic of paper-based administration to HTML is guaranteed to fail. If you want to create a quality e-service on the web, it is necessary to think of the root goals of data collection and its management and think of how to get necessary information to the user/citizen as quickly and as comfortably as well as securely as possible and to validate this electronically. This applies to virtually all applications.

In other words, E-government is not about making it possible for people to fill out the same old forms and questionnaires online, but rather is about achieving the goals of administration and services in the most intelligent and citizen-friendly way using the opportunities offered by IT.

The Estonian digital signature system, e-elections, e-police, the state portal, e-banking, e-taxdeclarations, e-health, e-school, the latest e-census (62% of population enumerated online) etc, prove that we are e-believers. We are proud of being pioneers in e-government as well as one of the hottest spots in the start-up scene.

We are openly willing to trade and share experiences with the rest of the world. After all, it is the exchange of information that allows knowledge to grow."


Original article on the e-Estonia.com webpage.
More about e-Estonia: e-estonia.com