Towards a Knowledge Society - The Nordic Experience

Ministerial Conference, Gothenburg, November 14-15

Speech by State Secretary Wenche Lyngholm
Ministry of Modernisation

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning. It is very nice to be here in Gothenburg. And I am very pleased to have this opportunity to talk to you about the challenges of providing electronic government for all in Norway.

It is not easy to achieve consensus on IT policy. For many years Norway, like many other countries, let the “thousand flowers bloom”. Our public agencies were allowed to focus on their own needs and develop their own IT-solutions and services. But in the long run this has led to rigid/sectoral government rather than effective, seamless egovernment.

During the last few years this trend has been reversed. We have begun to appreciate the need for closer cross-sector co-ordination and more efforts on common guidelines and standards.

(Slide: eNorway priorities)1There is a link to all slides at the end of the document.

Today we are at a watershed . We are in the process of a major renewal and redefinition of our electronic public services/electronic government. Our new eNorway 2009 action plan for a digital society is based on the following three priorities. We shall:

First of all meet individual needs and enable everyone to become digital citizens in our new digital society;

Secondly provide for a co-ordinated and user oriented public sector;

And finally contribute to innovation and growth throughout Norwegian business and industry.

So, ladies and gentlemen, what are the main highlights of our action plan?

(Slide: Main initiatives)

We have launched three important initiatives to come to grips with these challenges and the ambition to open up the information silos.

Firstly:

We have organised a co-ordinating forum for eGovernment consisting of top managers of the largest and most important government institutions that deal directly with the provision of services to citizens and enterprises. This way we can develop a cross sector commitment to important eGovernment issues, for instance common IT-architecture based on open standards to support interoperability, easy access, identification, and authentication.

Secondly:

We want to establish one single common access point to all government electronic services. A one stop electronic shop. We have called it MinSide" - "MyPage". It is a unique personal web site with a common access point to all government services and all web based information to citizens.

A first version of this new site or portal will be launched at the end of this year. It will provide a new common ground for co-operation between government institutions and agencies. Many agencies are already queuing up to take part and enrol their services under this new, common umbrella.

We have a similar initiative for businesses. It has been in operation for some time. It is called "AltInn" or "All In". It is one system or one site for the submission of all electronic forms and reporting from businesses to government. The Norwegian Tax Authorities together with Statistics Norway and the Brønnøysund Register Centre have pioneered this service. The system has been warmly welcomed by business users.

So far 11 agencies are connected to the portal, making up for about two thirds of the reporting forms used between enterprises and the government.

Thirdly:

We are developing a common solution and portal for handling electronic IDs and electronic signatures. This means that Norwegians will need only one electronic ID for all online public services. (This will remove all of the disadvantages and irritation around multiple user names, passwords and password calculators – hence, making life easier. ). We are planning to launch the solution in December both for citizens and businesses. We will rely on private distributors to provide electronic ID or so called Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

(Slide: Animated interoperability between silos)

We see these portals and the security gateway as a major breakthrough for a more user-friendly government. It will lower the threshold significantly for citizens and businesses to use electronic public services in their dealings with government. Safe log-on will also lay the foundations for the development of more advanced, more personalised electronic services and information services for instance in the health sector.

(Slide: Connected society)

Will it all work in practice? If we are to develop user-friendly and interactive services, we will need good broad band coverage. Although many Norwegians have had access to the Internet for a long time, we need more modern solutions. We are currently able to offer broadband connections to 91% of all households, and recent surveys show that approximately 45% of households will have picked up such offers by the end of the year.

(Slide: Aims for the future)

But still it will be a challenge for us to ensure that all geographic regions and population groups are covered and will have easy access to eGovernment services. And that people have the necessary digital skills. We will need digital education programmes if we are to prevent the growth of a digital divide.

To sum up we have many challenges ahead, and I think the provision of unique portal services for citizens and businesses is an important start . We are making good progress towards eGovernment for all!

Thank you for your attention – or perhaps I should say - eTtention!

(Final slide: Links to further info containing eNorway 2009 and overview of EEA financial mechanism)

All Slides (pdf-file)