Eesti.ee is the national eGovernment portal. The section for companies works as a Point of Single Contact that enables service providers operating all over Europe to solve the formalities needed for starting or continuing their business activities in the European Union (EU).
Read more: Estonia: New look and more English content on Eesti.ee platform
VOLIS (Local government council/government information system - Kohaliku omavalitsuse volikogu/valitsuse infosüsteem, in Estonian) follows the best eGovernment practices and contributes to a simpler and faster processing of services within the local governments. According to the Estonian Minister for Regional Affairs, Mr. Siim Kiisler, the introduction of VOLIS promotes participatory democracy and makes the decision-making process at local government level more open.
Read more: Estonia: VOLIS - Electronic information system for local governments in operation
Right, we get it. Twenty years ago, the country shook free of the Soviets and made a strategic decision to invest, heavily, in information technology. The country's President, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, put it this way: "We are a small, unassuming European country that's fairly advanced when it comes to Internet applications."
Read more: Why Estonia Is the Poster Child for Cyber-Security
The Baltic state of 1.3 million people has already helped fellow ex-communist democracies Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, plus a total of 40 states, to implement Internet-based government and services common in Estonia for years, but still not widely available elsewhere.
The €33,000 project, implemented by the Tallinn-based e-Governance Academy includes electronic voting, attendance registration and a speech system, which will be developed and implemented in Afghanistan’s parliament buildings. The system will have speech and voting consoles, user authentication using fingerprints, screens and monitors for displaying information and a supporting information system.