The latest Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) of the European Commission shows that Estonia holds the first place in the EU when it comes to digital public services while placing seventh among member states in the overall results consisting of altogether four scores per country.
"Estonia has achieved much on its digital development path, which is demonstrated by our first place in the rankings. At the same time, we have much room for improvement in order to provide an even higher quality of digital state experience, which should be both user-friendly as well as secure," Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT Andres Sutt said, adding that it is important to improve citizens' and users' satisfaction with the state's digital services.
"The recently adopted new digital society development plan for 2030 establishes the goals and action plan for ensuring that people should have the best possible experience with the digital state, particularly in terms of user-friendliness, through proactive life event-based services and artificial intelligence," the minister said.
Estonia's greatest challenge is connectivity, according to the index.
"High-quality communication links are the foundation of a well-functioning digital society, which is an area, where we have quite a bit of room for development, according to DESI," Sutt said.
The minister added that this situation will be improved by close to 70 million euros being invested in the establishment of rapid internet connections within the next few years as well as the introduction of the 5G technology, the prerequisite of which is the adoption of amendments to the Electronic Communications Act that are currently being handled by the parliament.
In terms of integration of digital technology in businesses' activities, Estonia placed ninth, jumping 5 places compared with last year. Sutt said that Enterprise Estonia has an important role in this development.
"In addition to various support measures, Enterprise Estonia also offers consultancy services to entrepreneurs as well as practical training and workshops for digitizing services and work processes," Sutt said.
The DESI provides an overview of EU member states' progress in the development of the digital economy, state and society. The top three of DESI rankings was made up of Denmark, Finland and Sweden this year.