“Green book on e-government in Ukraine” was presented in Uzhgorod (PHOTOS)

As part of the discussion of state policy in the field of e-government in Ukraine, on November 27, a round table on "Digital Agenda for Ukraine. Green Book: the strategy for e-government policy" took place in Uzhgorod, in the premises of Transcarpathian Regional State Administration

The round table was opened by the Deputy Head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the RSA Nadia Tokarchyk, who reminded that in September 2011, Ukraine had joined the initiative "Partnership "Open Government", thereby confirming that it shares the basic principles of the Partnership, including: ensuring transparency of public administration, involvement of the public in the formulation and implementation of the state policy, combating corruption and the introduction of new information technologies. "The introduction of e-government and e-democracy development is one of the important stages on the way to democratic reforms", – N.Tokarchyk said.

The "Green Book" is a document that is used by governments of democratic countries to declare and discuss the main trends and contents of the state policy in a given area. The main feature of the "Green Book" is that its contents provides for preliminary thorough study and open public debate on key issues in a particular area of the state policy and ways to solve them. Based on the "Green Book" and taking into account suggestions of the discussion participants, the "White Book" is developed, the materials of which will be used to develop specific legal acts and adoption of relevant government decisions. Thus,  the integrity, consistency and continuity in the implementation of the state policy, transparent and open process of its development is ensured.

The main sections of the draft document "Green book of the state policy in the field of e-government in Ukraine" was presented by the Director of the Institute of Senior Executives of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine Andriy Semenchenko. He said that the "Green Book" contains analysis of the problems of e-government in Ukraine and proposals for their solution. The document defines the main directions of development of e-government, electonic interaction of government bodies, electronic services, open data and e-democracy.

During the roundtable, Transcarpathian experts stressed that the current situation in Ukraine regarding the provision of administrative services needs urgent reforms, which includes: streamlining of administrative services sytem; reengineering of existing administrative processes to optimize them; introduction of electronic administrative services which is the best mechanism for such reforms. Particular attention should be paid to the willingness and motivation of government employees to provide electronic services. 

The head of the department of solid-state electronics of the Physics Faculty of Uzhgorod National University Ivan Rizak pointed out the need to improve technical protection of digital information and personal data. He said that information security is the security of the state of Ukraine, so a lot should be done in this area.

The Deputy Chairman of Uzhgorod city council Yaroslav Shafar raised the issue of the capacity of individual administrative units to provide administrative services, as cities by their nature have unique capabilities for provision of such services.

Following the roundtable, the participants prepared a series of proposals, namely: the appointment of the main coordinator of the State programme of e-governance in Ukraine at the national level; the development of common approaches and clear standards of implementation of e-government in the country; the implementation of a clear division of responsibilities for the provision of electronic services between central and local authorities; the support of technical protection of information; the creation of conditions for local governments to provide their own paid services; training of qualified personnel to work in the field of e-government and so on.