Stenbock House, 15 November 2013 – the e-governance solutions and the Climate Policy of the United Nations were discussed at the meeting between Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. According to the Prime Minister, Estonia has successfully implemented the e-governance solutions, which have both improved the transparency of governance and supported economic development. It was noted at the meeting that Estonia’s experience and sharing it with the other countries also meets the objectives of the United Nations.
“Estonia has made public services more accessible and transparent for the people. As a result, restructuring has taken place almost in all the authorities – the need to go to a certain place to sign a document is gone and the need for paper and manpower has also reduced,” Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said, bringing the use of digital signatures as an example. The Prime Minister stressed that the use of digital signatures has a considerable economic effect: according to calculations, the e-solutions help to save one week of the working time in a year per person, which equals to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.
According to him, the building of the e-government information systems has started in almost all countries of the world and increasingly, there is interest in Estonia’s experience: the country’s experience in e-governance has been introduced to politicians and field experts from nearly 60 countries. Several projects in the development of e-governance have been started with the support from the development programmes of the United Nations and according to the Prime Minister, the United Nations could also serve as an active partner in introducing Estonia’s e-solutions in the future.
Additionally, the Climate Policy of the United Nations was discussed at the meeting. Its aim is to achieve consensus on the new global agreement by 2015, at the latest, and significant reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020.
Prime Minister Andrus Ansip confirmed that Estonia supports the process of achieving the Climate Change Agreement. “Estonia has significantly reduced the GHG emissions. The proportion of the renewable energy is presently already 25 %, which is the renewable energy target set for 2020,” he said. According to the Prime Minister, it has been useful to both the environment and economy.
One important topic of the meeting included the situation in Afghanistan. Ban Ki-moon stressed that the United Nations has focused on supporting Afghanistan and deemed it necessary that international assistance would continue. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip confirmed that Estonia will support Afghanistan until our help and contribution are needed and welcomed.
Photos from the meeting: http://valitsus.ee/et/uudised/pildialbum#2592-1