MINSK, 23 November (BelTA) – An interagency working group to develop the information society and improve digital government will be created in Belarus. The group will also take care of satisfying the demand of government agencies, the private sector and citizens for digital services. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov signed the relevant executive order on 20 November, the press service of the Belarus government told BelTA.
The working group will be supervised by First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky. In accordance with the executive order the group has been tasked with putting together the draft state program on developing digital economy and information society in 2016-2020, the procedure, methods and individual schedules for teaching digital government technologies. Digital workflow systems are at the top of the list. Heads of central government agencies and other state organizations accountable to the government, the Council of Ministers, and the Office of the Council of Ministers will have to learn the new technologies and pass a practical test.
The Information Technologies and Communications Ministry has been instructed to submit to the government by 31 December 2015 a draft legal act on adopting the 2016-2020 government program on developing digital economy and information society.
In early November the Presidium of the Council of Ministers discussed a draft strategy on the development of information technologies in Belarus in 2016-2022. Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov noted that the development pace of digital services and the penetration rate of information technologies in all spheres and all branches of the national economy were insufficiently fast. Financing was mentioned as one of the reasons. However, all the government agencies should step up efforts in this area, stressed the Belarusian head of government.
Speaking about digital government, Andrei Kobyakov reminded that as far as digital government readiness is concerned, according to UN estimates in 2014 Belarus occupied the 55th position among 193 countries, six positions up in two years. “In addition to holding on to the results we have to advance further,” he said.
Belarusian Information Technologies and Communications Minister Sergei Popkov explained that the draft strategy for developing information technologies in Belarus in 2016-2022 envisages a plan of concrete actions in various areas — social sphere, real sector, transport industry, and banking industry. For instance, all the medical records have to be digitized as part of the strategy's implementation.
