
Pardubice delegation visits Estonia for insights on digital governance
12.04.2024 / 16:50 | Aktualizováno: 12.04.2024 / 16:54
From April 7 to 10, an 8-member delegation from the Pardubice Region, led by Pardubice governor Martin Netolický, visited Estonia. The main aim of the delegation’s visit was to better understand the principles and methods of digitization in public administration systems used in Estonia, both on the state level and on the local level.
The first day of the visit took the delegation first to the e-Estonia Briefing Centre, where they received an inspirational introduction to the underlying mechanisms of digitizing the Estonian society from main challenges and policies, to the infrastructure, e-solutions, and services. The delegation also met with the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, where they learned about Estonia's local government ICT development and initiatives. The main focus was on introducing the new website platform created for local governments, designed to enhance municipal information services and user experience.
The delegation also got an idea of the digitization experiences of two municipalities. The first of them was the capital Tallinn, where they met Martin Männil, Digital Director of the Tallinn Strategy Center. As Tallinn’s e-government services were rated third in the world in the UN’s 2022 digital services ranking, he gave an overview of Tallinn's digital services and explained the design thinking process when planning e-services. Further insights were gained from Spin TEK, Estonia's oldest IT company, which has played a significant role in developing systems for the Estonian public sector. The delegation learned about various systems, including web-based solutions for cemetery management and pet registration. The delegation's visit also included a meeting at the e-Governance Academy, where they learned about Estonia's digital identity system and the country's successful approach to digital governance.
In order to hear the experiences of the digitization of some smaller municipalities, the delegation also visited the Rapla municipality in Central Estonia. The meeting, where the Czech Ambassador David Král also accompanied the delegation, was attended by several municipal officials, among others the Mayor Gert Villard. Deputy Mayor Toomas Nael introduced the field of economy and planning, and Deputy Mayor Rain Terras introduced the field of development, entrepreneurship, innovation and public relations. In addition, an overview was also given of education and cultural work and the municipality's budget policy. The mentioned topics caused an in-depth discussion between the delegation and the leaders of Rapla. In addition, the delegation got to see the newly opened Rapla Music School.
Wrapping up their visit, the delegation met with the Czech Ambassador in Estonia, David Král, for an overview of Estonia and to exchange ideas regarding what they saw and heard during the visit. All in all, the Pardubice delegation's trip turned out to be successful, as the meetings were comprehensive and provided an overview of Estonia's best practices as well as lessons learned.