On January 11 the Cabinet of Ministers of Moldova approved a draft law on the ratification of two agreements on financing of Modernization of Governmental Services Project, signed with the World Bank in Chisinau on November 28. The overall cost of the project is 22.3 million dollars. According to the World Bank, a project consists of 4 components. The first component, Administrative Service Modernization, aims to support enhancement of Government services processes to address ineffective communication, inefficiency of public institutions, and many other deficiencies, creating barriers for businesses and individuals in accessing Government administrative services. The second component, Digital Platform and Services, aims to support the digitalization of selected reengineered administrative services and introduce Government-wide IT management and cyber security procedures and standards. The third component, Service Delivery Model Implementation, envisages the alignment of institutional and stuff capabilities of key Government agencies with the developed citizen-centric model and digital administrative service delivery arrangements, implemented under components 1 and 2. The fourth component, Project Management, aims to finance the Project Implementation Unit. “The Modernization of Governmental Services Project will improve the quality and access to public services,” confirmed WB’s Country Manager for Moldova Anna Akhalkatsi, after the World Bank’s board of Directors had approved the financings on August 29.
In 2017 international experts on open data commented on the achievements of Ukraine as a breakthrough of the year. According to the rating Open Data Barometer, produced by the international non-governmental organization World Wide Web Foundation, Ukraine ranked 44th and improved its result by 18 positions.
In the Global Open Data Index, which is released by an international non-governmental organization Open Knowledge International, Ukraine ranked 31st and improved its result by 23 positions compared with 2016. In these ratings, Ukraine has outstripped its neighbors and some EU countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
Ukraine has received the most favorable evaluations for openness of a state budget and expenditures, purchases, single state register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and national legislation.
On January 15 Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas stated that a joint data exchange platform initiated between Estonia and Finland should expand to include all Baltic and Nordic countries. In June 2017 Estonia and Finland established a non-profit association Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions to develop the X-Road data exchange layer in information systems, which allows registers and databases to interact securely.
According to the European Commission, Denmark is the most digitally developed country in the European Union, while Estonia places ninth.
