SLOVAKIA is aiming to make the country more ‘internet-ised’ and turn paper shuffling between state offices, citizens and businesses into online efficiency. It is doing so via its Operational Programme Informatisation of Society, co-financed by EU funds. In November, the European Commission revealed its study about Smarter, Faster, Better eGovernment, the 8th benchmark measurement of eServices across Europe.
“The report ranked Slovakia among countries with relatively fast growing eGovernment and highlighted projects of the central portal of the public administration and the digital library for sightless people,” Lucia Mušková, the programme director of ITAPA, the leading international congress on information technology use in public administration organised annually in Slovakia, reported for Euractiv.sk.
According to the study, Slovakia’s Information Society and eGovernment performance presents a mixed picture. Its authors claim that Slovakia has an average internet use rate, but low broadband access, high eGovernment use by businesses and low usage by citizens. Around 58 percent of households in Slovakia have broadband connections compared with the EU27 average of 60 percent. In the case of enterprises, this is 79 percent compared to the 81 percent average in EU27. While 30 percent of individuals use eGovernment in Slovakia, compared with the EU27 average of 28 percent, in the case of enterprises it is 88 percent compared with 68 percent for the EU27.
The study goes on to report that online availability and sophistication levels remain low. However, Slovakia has been steadily improving its scores and with growth rates well above the EU27+ (EU member countries and Croatia, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) average since 2005. It now rates 55 percent on full online availability, and 72 percent on online sophistication. Both scores have improved significantly over the past two years but remain well below the EU27+ average of 71 percent and 83 percent respectively.
From the growth perspective, the study reads that Slovakia’s eGovernment development seems to be on track. The healthy growth of nearly 20 percentage points in the two ‘traditional’ benchmark rankings, full online availability and sophistication level shows that Slovakia is ready to progress further. Business services are particularly well developed with the exception of Environmental Permits, currently only available at the informational level, according to the study.
Slovakia’s eProcuremet score is under the EU27+ average. The scores of each sub phase are similar and relatively low. Slovakia has a non-mandatory national eProcurement platform. The system of eProcurement covers only some procedures and phases of procurement.
