Information Technology Landscape in

ESTONIA

 

About Estonia
Infrastructure
Government Policies
IT Deregulation
Internet Diffusion
Hardware
Software
Legal Environment
E-Commerce
IT Geographics
IT Financing
IT Labor Market
Transborder Data Flow
Strengths/Weaknesses
IT Impact on Business
Sources Used
About the Author

                                 Government Policies

Estonian government takes IT very seriously and considers movement towards the information society to be one of the important objectives in the development of the country. Sound policy towards IT is also necessary for Estonia to expedite its integration into the European Union. The Estonian Parliament approved the Principles of Estonian Information Policy document on May 13, 1998. Further, the government approved the Information Policy Action Plan in April 1998 and May 1999. These document outlined a general strategy of the Estonian government as far as the development of IT was concerned.

In general, the interest of the state covers both public and private sectors. The four major areas that the government is concentrating its efforts on are modernization of legislation, supporting the development of the private sector, shaping the interaction between the State and citizens, and raising awareness of problems concerning the information society. According to the “Principles…”, “The ultimate goal of  the information policy is a rise in the overall welfare of society.”

The tools that the government intends to use to influence society’s activities in private sector are legislation and taxation. Legislative efforts are concentrated on demonopolizing industries, promoting competition, promoting standardization, guaranteeing protection of intellectual property, and ensuring privacy of individuals and safety of data. Taxation as a regulating tool is used to encourage private investing in research and development and, also, publishing literature that promotes education in information technology areas.

In public sector, in turn, the government plays a central role. The State constitutionally guarantees the openness of the information and, also, promotes establishing of access points to guarantee access to information.

The latest (2001) planned measures by sectors are as follows (from Estonian CEEC Review report on information society):

           Measures for the information society and awareness about it, including protection of personal data: establishment of an office for coordination of activities, providing information on IS, activating the institution for supervision of data protection, assessment of security level of the public administration agencies.

 

      Legislation development planned: implementation of the WTO IT agreement, protection of intellectual and industrial property, IT tax allowances, legislation on electronic business, shaping of Estonian cryptography policy, digital signature and document

 

      Creating a competitive economy, including improvement of private sector and support of the information industry in Estonia: state program for informatics development, liberalization of telecommunication, promotion of high-technology production, creation of a substructure dealing with the information industry, reflection of information industry in statistics, export subsidies, increasing competitiveness and export potential of information industry companies, promotion of research and development in the IT, promotion of standardization.

 

      Education, research, and development: the normalization program for education, computer competence certificate, continuing education and certification of chief information officers, promotion of high-tech production, standards and agreements of electronic business, a program to make information industry companies competitive in EU IT procurement, project to create opportunities of balanced development to the whole of Estonia, economic and social cohesion, development standards for information systems, standards and conditions of exchange of public administration data.

 

      Modernization of government, including the open government issues: modernization of the state sector, creating an information server informing people about the public administration agencies, participation in elaboration of the procedures for IT state procurement, improving data security in government agencies, organizing public administration data exchange, convergence of statistics with EV norms, developing a database of the state IT resources.

Tiger Leap Project 

The major project that Estonian government has been supporting starting in 1997 is the project "Tiger Leap" that is aimed at wiring Estonia and ensuring the right to access the Internet for every Estonian with an emphasis on improving education. The project is supported by the Ministry of Education and its first goal was "a computer for every 20 pupils". Thanks to the project, every school in Estonia is now connected to the Internet, and appropriate training has been provided to school teachers and instructors. Also, the funding from the Tiger Leap helps design educational software and software packages for educational establishments. 

 

 

Last Updated 11/29/2001 by Alec Snetkov alec_snetkov@yahoo.com