The usage of eServices in Lithuania is below the EU average, which in 2010 stood at 41 % of citizens, and which is expected to reach 50 % by 2015. Ieva Žilionienė, Deputy Director of the Information Society Development Committee (ISDC; Informacinės visuomenės plėtros komiteto - IVPK, in Lithuanian), said that the aim is to catch up with the EU average, and that to this end the development and improvement of eServices has been allocated a lot of money from EU structural funds and the state budget.
She explained: "Electronic services are provided by the State Social Insurance Fund Board (SoDra), the vehicle agency State Enterprise REGITRA, the State Enterprise Centre of Registers, the Lithuanian Labour Exchange, the State Tax Inspectorate (STI) and Statistics Lithuania, as well as many others. Their biggest advantage is the time they save, and we must make sure that people can check on the services themselves. For this reason, the Committee has initiated a campaign to provide all citizens of Lithuania with access to the benefits of electronic services."
According to Ms Žilionienė, the ISDC's campaign will consist of several parts and is intended for both advanced Internet users and for those with little or no experience of it. For advanced users, the campaign will be developed and delivered in September 2011 through a new website 'Prisijungusi Lietuva' (Login Lithuania, in English), while citizens who do not use the Internet will be invited to the country's libraries in October 2011 to watch a streamed live broadcast, in which the educational 'E-kademijos' lecture series will provide information.
She said: "Research has shown that information on public and administrative electronic services is needed most by citizens living in smaller towns or rural areas, and pensioners. In addition, 26 % of respondents said they lack the information for eServices to be useful to them in general, and 20 % of respondents want clear and easy instructions on how to use electronic services. Therefore, knowledge is required of the set of electronic services, their usefulness and attractiveness, to give them a more acceptable form. We also need to encourage people to visit the eGovernment portal website www.epaslaugos.lt which centrally provides links to many authorities and services."
The poll of 1008 people over 18 years of age was commissioned by ISDC and was funded by the 2007-2013 EU structural funds. It also found that 4 % of respondents use the services at least once a week, and 9 % at least once a month. Respondents who use electronic services are more often 30-49 years (34 %), have higher education (53 %) and are urban dwellers (32 %). Those who have not used the services are typically of retirement age (92 %), live in rural areas (83 %) and have the lowest family incomes (87 %).
Background Information:
ISDC is part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (Susisiekimo ministerijos, in Lithuanian) and participates in shaping the public information and communications technology policies and coordinating its implementation. It is also responsible for EU structural funds allocated to the information society development projects, management and public investment programmes financed under the coordination of investment projects, as well as the development and implementation of public information resources management regulation, plus supervising the provision of information society services.
Further information:
- Original news article - Information Society Development Committee (in Lithuanian)
- Information Society Development Committee
- Related ePractice news article - LT: 32 % of population complete national census online
- Background information - ePractice eGovernment Factsheet for Lithuania
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 19.09.2011
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