Estonia rallies govt’s race to 400 online services
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday March 11, 2024 06:00
Under the Transitional National Development Plan and other strategic documents, government plans to migrate 400 public services to online platforms as part of the national priority of digitisation.
The revelations came after a high-powered delegation of Estonian public and private sector officials, led by President Alar Karis and featuring several ICT investors, met with President Mokgweetsi Masisi and various government leaders this week.
Karis said the European nation was eager to partner with the Botswana government and the private sector, in digitising the economy and sharing the Baltic state’s journey to becoming one of the world’s most cyber-connected countries.
On his social media, Karls described Botswana as a one of Estonia’s “development cooperation priority partners” in Africa.
“In Estonia, 99% of our services are available online 24/7,” Karis said at a panel discussion on Tuesday. “This is everything, ranging from a passport or even a fishing permit which you apply for while walking to the lake. “The question is how to build a bureaucracy-free life and we have worked on this in Estonia. “I’m happy to share on the path to an e-life.”
Karls said Estonia’s approach was that any new public service procedure had to be available digitally and be user-friendly.
“Your grandmother must be able to use it or it cannot work for us,” he said.
The President said after gaining Independence from the then Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR), the new nation was eager to break away from the “old Soviet style” and had embraced heavy investment in digitisation.
President Masisi revealed that government was collaborating with Estonia on the development of Botswana Artificial Intelligence strategy.
“We would like to explore cooperation with Estonia on developing partnerships towards implementing the SMARTBOTS strategy, with focus on smart agriculture, e-governance, as well as research and innovation,” he said.
Also speaking at the panel discussion, Ministry of Communications, Knowledge and Technology permanent secretary, Pontsho Pusoetsile, revealed that local authorities were well on their way to meeting a target set by Masisi on the migration of public services online.
“Currently we have 200 ready online services. “President Masisi this year gave us a target of having 130 more by September and I’m happy to announce that we are at 90 in that 130,” he said.
Information made available to Mmegi indicates that services already online include import and export permits, tourism permits, licences and permits applications, tertiary student financing, eHealth and others.
The services are largely Government-to-Citizen (G2C), but authorities have said they are also looking into digitising services that promote Government to Business (G2B) Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Employee (G2E) interactions.
Pusoetsile said heavy investment in digital infrastructure and research continues in the country, as part of the pursuit of a knowledge-based economy.
“We have seen a significant increase in our research spending and this year we are moving to P1.2 billion on research, which shows that as government we have to generate knowledge if we are to become a knowledge-based economy. “We continue to invest in the innovation space and every year it’s a minimum of a P100 million in the innovation space,” he said.
The permanent secretary said the country was making strides in moving into cyberspace, with mobile penetration at over 200%, mobile internet usage in the country at over 120% and mobile 4G at about 90%. The Ministry wants to see 100% 4G coverage of all villages by March 2025 and will thereafter push for network extension to tourism and farming areas.
Pusoetsile said while infrastructure and services were essential in the digitisation drive, government was also prioritising underlying principles, particularly the need to take all citizens into the knowledge-based economy.
“The underlying principle in all these strategies is that we should leave no one behind,” he said. “Just because you are in a remote area, or because of your education level, level of wealth, gender, disability or anything, we should not leave you behind. “We believe in one country, driven by one government which is citizen-driven, meaning that it’s not the government pushing its agenda, but the citizen leading the transformation of government.”