Preparation is underway for a law on digital agency, to be set up during 2021 as a central institution for implementing the digitalization process in society, as well as full support to state institutions.
“Digital agency is a necessity in our public sector. I’m fully committed to leading this process and expect maximum support from the Government in terms of funding. This includes a state cloud system project, which I not only initiated, but also submitted a project file in the first 100 days to the EU donors as one of the priority projects, which should guarantee a central place, a state center where all public sector systems will be set up,” Minister of Information Society and Administration Jeton Shaqiri told a press conference on his first 100 days in office.
The state, he pointed out, must upgrade the optical network capacities in order to use the latest modern technologies and IT solutions, as well as preparation for future solutions that will already be applied in the country, so we can’t allow poor “IT-pathways.”
According to the Minister, as these projects are large and expensive, they will be implemented with the help of funds from the World Bank and the Western Balkans Investment Framework, as well as the IPA instrument of the EU, and documentation is already being prepared, i.e. some of them have been submitted for evaluation.
With the IPA project for improvement and expansion of government and public electronic services that started in September 2020, working groups have mapped the institutions where new electronic registers and services will be developed, as well as service identification and dynamics for their implementation.
“Forty registers and services will be ready by summer, and by the end of the project there will be a total of 135 new electronic services for citizens and businesses, in order to facilitate and improve the functioning of institutions and accountability to citizens and businesses,” said Shaqiri.
He added that in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, new electronic services have been launched, including diploma verification services, as a project supported by the British Embassy. Work is also underway to integrate new services with the national portal of electronic services.
A Cyber Security Center is a necessity of modern times, said the Minister adding that the Ministry of Information Society and Administration in the coming period will act according to the Cyber Security Strategy in order to map the entire critical infrastructure at the state level and the possibility of establishing an operational body or institution that will addresses this issue, which will not be part of the digital agency.
In addition, Shaqiri noted that activities are underway for preparation of an open data strategy to be finalized in the first year in office. He also referred to activities in terms of preparation of laws on public administration reform.
