How to Create Effective E-government?

Although important steps have recently been taken in Azerbaijan in the formation of e-government, greater transparency, efficiency and participation of civil society is required. This idea is a refrain heard in speeches during the seminar: "The technical and legal aspects of e-government project in Azerbaijan" organized on Thursday by the Institute of Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the campaign Expressionline in a project funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) .

Gulnara Akhundova, head of the regional programs of the International Organization of media support (International media support), opening the meeting by suggesting the basic idea of ??e-government is to facilitate government services to citizens.

She noted that despite repeated invitations from the organizers of the seminar, representatives of the agencies responsible for the organization of electronic services - Ministry of Communications (MCIT) and the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovation (GAUGSI) did not attend the discussion.

Representative of the American organization IREX Alasgar Mammadli noted that generally accepted standards for the effectiveness of e-government ensures 60% of the population with broadband Internet. In Azerbaijan, Internet via ADSL technology is common in large cities and some regional centers. Many of the 4,500 villages in the country do not have broadband Internet.

Part of the problem can be solved by the mobile Internet. However, 3G technology is also not available everywhere.

By 2015, the government plans to cover the entire country with Fiber Optic cable. However, 800 villages still lack even a wired telephone.

Mammadli noted that in June of this year, the UN decided to recognize access to the Internet to be one kind of human right, which should be guaranteed by the government. Azerbaijan has maintained high prices for internet access, despite the worldwide decline in cost over recent years. Now the price is about 15 manat for 1 Mbit / s. Relative to the indexed minimum wage, it is 15%, while in Turkey - 0.003%, and in Russia - 1.2%.

As for the implementation of e-government, Azerbaijan government claims to provide about 200 kinds of electronic services, but much of it is only on-line information. A 2005 law requires ministries and agencies to put information on their websites on the day after the information is released.

Mammadli identified departure from some of the positive innovations of recent times as another problem. People have switched to electronic payments for utilities, but now meter have been introduced and smart cards are being developed, but there is no corresponding electronic format to load payments onto the devices.

IRFS Director Emin Huseynov said that a month ago Azerbaijan began to use electronic signatures, although the law was adopted in 2004. However, there are problems with the security of electronic signatures. Created for the authentication of electronic signatures http://e-imza.az/ himself exposed to danger.To ensure the security of the signature, he suggested using the European practice, wherein the chips with an electronic signature are complemented by biometric retina, eye color, fingerprints.

Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, expert on social media observed that despite the provision of more than 200 e-government services, many of them are meaningless. Thus, the Ministry proposes to give the value of human names.

Hajiyev  noted another problem in the formation of e-government is the reluctance of some government agencies to conduct inter-agency exchange of data.

All three speakers were in favor of the introduction of a unified system of pin codes through which citizens can log into the system of state bodies.

Further issues around e-government were discussed with experts and representatives of the companies involved in the project by the Government - BEST Solutions, ACTORS IT, and Cybernetica. -06B-