Despite the fact that almost half the population has access to the Internet (in Belarus, circa 5 million Internet users aged 15 - 74 years), only a small fraction of users uses e-services. The main reason is a low level of awareness about e-services. Most citizens are not aware of the services they can receive electronically. E-Belarus.org experts also note low e-literacy among government officials.
But there are some popular e-services provided by state companies, for example, looking for and booking railway tickets online.
Another popular public medical service is making online appointments to see a doctor (http://minsk.gov.by/ru/services/physicians/). The largest private portal with online resources about medicine and health care in Belarus is www.103.by. The portal has 12,000 unique visitors a day.
Internet payments are mainly done via Belarusian EasyPay. Currently, this e-payment system is the only serious competitor to Russian e-payment systems. There are also other systems: WebPay / e-Pay, and mobile payment system iPay.
Elements of e-government are also present in Belarus. A nationwide automated information system (UAIS) has been launched, as well as document management systems in government departments, access to interdepartmental databases, inventories, population registry, etc. Secure e-mail system for state bodies and organizations Mailgov is used to send up to 300,000 documents per month, a system of interagency electronic government is used to send up to 30,000 documents per month and a unified information system for monitoring the implementation of the President’s instructions. The e-government project is to be completed in 2015.
Brest Oblast was the first to introduce e-appeals to state officials, as far back as 2004. E-appeals are regulated by the Law of 18.07.2011 ‘On appeals by citizens and legal persons’.
The number of e-appeals by citizens to regional executive committees varies from 10% (Mogilev) to 30% (Minsk). Executive committee websites have special online forms for appeals. The majority of state officials do not use social networks or blogs for feedback. Communication via social networks is more widely used by opposition politicians. Unlike opposition media, blogs of Belarusian politicians are neither very popular, no influential.
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Quelle/Source: Belarus In Focus, 01.10.2013
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