#Romania2019.eu/Guests from 13 countries, present at eGovernment conference, organised by Ministry of Communications

An international conference on eGovernment, attended by guests from 13 countries and discussing ways to improve and develop, as well as to enhance cooperation at European level in this field, was held at the Palace of Culture in northeastern Iasi in the context of Romania's holding of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, a press release issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) informs.

The High Level eGovernment Conference was organized by MCSI and the Iasi County Council, being the first important event on the PRES RO 2019 agenda in the digital domain.

The conference was structured on three themes - Connected Communities, Mobile Governance & Digital Interaction and Resilient Communities - and featured debates at experts' level on the benefits and importance of the concept of eGovernment at EU level.

"When digitization meets public administrations, both central and local, through optimal compatibility for the benefit of citizens, we define in a practical manner the concept of eGovernance. I believe that a well-implemented eGovernment is, in practical terms, transparent governing, effective and efficient governing - in short, good governing, this is also my term's desired goal," minister Alexandru Petrescu said in his opening speech.

"Estonia, Spain and Portugal, to mention only three member states, all have DESI scores well above average in eGovernment and were very open to help us. For example, we, in Romania, are carrying out a thorough analysis of the legal framework for public services in view of modernizing it in line with the 2020 standards, thus allowing for a smooth eGovernment. As part of this ongoing effort, we have been very lucky to cooperate with our colleagues in Spain for what has been proven to be a very productive experience exchange. We hope this will materialize in the revision of legislation and new digitization projects," said Alexandru Petrescu.

He noted that, beside the work of EU bodies and member states, other international initiatives were also closely analysed.

"As such, we have made efforts to deepen cooperation with the Digital 9 countries. As far as the Digital 9 group is concerned, I would personally want to see Romania as a contributing member. Starting with last year, the group has nine members, as suggested by the new name, three of which are EU Member States: the UK - a true eGovernment opener, with their GOV.UK platform, alongside Estonia with the X-ROADS system, and more recently, Portugal. This places us in a position good enough to ensure an efficient transfer of knowledge and exchange of experience that we intend to fully follow soon," the minister further stated, adding that part of the Digital 9 are two countries with which Romania's collaboration has improved a lot in recent years: Israel and the Republic of Korea.AGERPRES(RO - author: Cristian Lupascu, editor: Diana Dumitru; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)