On 27 September 2019, the Fifth Forum for IT Directors of Ukrainian Public Sector “Trust in the Digital Society” was held in Kyiv. More than 300 participants joined the discussions on e-governance development in Ukraine and importance of building secure data exchange and privacy protection.

The forum was jointly organised by the EGOV4UKRAINE project, which is part of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

“Trust is a must,” said Andrus Ansip (Estonia), key speaker of the Forum. “People will never start using electronic services, if they feel that their data is not protected enough.”

Andrus Ansip, former Vice President of the European Commission for the Common Digital Market and former Prime Minister of Estonia, also stressed the importance of digital transformation for society and every citizen.

"We have done all the structural reforms not for Brussels or anyone else – but for ourselves," he outlined Estonia's approach on its path to the European Union.

 

 

Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, also mentioned the Estonian experience of e-government reforms and the need to adopt this experience for Ukraine. These include political support at all levels of government, introduction of smart-ID, the only online portal for servicing citizens and practicing this public service delivery design so that they are invisible to the public.

Mykhailo Fedorov also spoke about the plans of the newly created Ministry of Digital Transformation and presented the “State and me” project, a set of measures aimed at facilitating the interaction of the state and the citizen due to development of online services.

"Data protection belongs to the category of human rights," said Christina Razgoni from the University of Vienna. She is the chief consultant on media, telecommunications and legal policies. “The government must make data and privacy protection a daily business, as it is in the European Union. This is the key to building trust. ”

Mari Pedak, EGOV4UKRAINE Project Manager, and Lyudmila Rabchynska, adviser to the Minister of Digital Information, also spoke about building trust in electronic service delivery.

" The Trembita data exchange system is the basis for mass development of e-services, and the Vulyk information system for ASCs supports public service delviery," said Mari Pedak. “However, digital identification is also required. This is another factor that strengthens trust. ”

Lyudmila Rabchynska emphasised that public services should be accessible to all in Ukraine. That is why the Ministry of Digital Transformation and donors are developing the Administrative Services Centres while developing the State in the Smartphone initiative.

 

 

The forum also had two separate seminars on the implementation of the Trembita data exchange system and the Vulyk information system.

Andriy Piskun, who oversees the implementation of the Vulyk system at EGOV4UKRAINE, emphasised the benefits of the information system for the ASCs.

Vulyk provides the basic needs of the centres,” the expert said. “It is a subsystem of the System of electronic interaction of executive bodies, and therefore it accelerates service delivery. The function of interaction between Vulyk and Trembita system is extremely important. In addition, Vulyk is easy to use, free of charge and its functionality can be increased.”

More information on the Forum and on e-governance issues in Ukraine can be found here:

• Fifth Forum for IT Directors of Ukrainian Public Sector - https://www.forumitdir.eu/
• Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine - https://www.e.gov.ua/ua
• ULEAD/EGOV4UKRAINE Project - https://www.facebook.com/egov4ukraine/
• https://ega.ee/ru/project/u-lead/ (in Russian), https://ega.ee/project/u_lead/ (in English)
• Trembita data exchange system - https://trembita.gov.ua/ua
• Vulyk information system - https://vulyk.gov.ua/#/

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE