Slovakia on final mile in building e-Government

Slovakia is on its "final mile" in regards to building e-Government, said Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini at the Spring ITAPA 2017 conference in Bratislava on Tuesday. "It wasn't an easy year, the [recently created] office had to establish itself and find skilled people who were willing to work for it. The state isn't among the sexiest employers, so it took quite a while and effort to persuade skilled people to come over to work for the state. The salary wouldn't be the [key] motivation in terms of reward for their work, but they were encouraged to consider it rather as a challenge," said Pellegrini. Slovakia doesn't need to be ashamed of its results in digital technologies, said Pellegrini, pointing to an amendment to the law on e-Government, currently in the legislative process, that should bring in card payments for the state's electronic services and an easier process for signing documents, for example. The state's electronic mail boxes will also undergo significant redesign and improvement of their individual tools, he noted. The vice-premier wants to introduce competitiveness among state bodies in providing electronic services, stating that the Slovensko.sk website will be only an entrance portal to navigate users further, while the websites of specific offices won't be forced to be "like two peas in a pod".