Lithuanian e-Government

 

Vocabulary

devote	capital (2)	waking moment
declare	found (2)	relatively
edge (2)	interfere	extensive
trust	formality	infrastructure
privacy	sufficient	hot-button issue
right (3)	signature	account (3)
registry	coverage	administration
extend	virtually	most likely
prevent	spread (2)	awareness
versed	civil servant	prospective
whereas

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Aushrina Mazariene was born in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, two months ago.

And like all new parents, her mother and father want to spend every waking moment with her.

That’s relatively easy in Lithuania: they can simply register their newborn online.

Rima Mazariene: “Without e-government, I would have had to spend days at the registry office . . . now I’ve finished everything in fifteen minutes.”

Vitalius Marazas: “We could devote our entire attention to the baby; nobody had to go to the registry. The three of us could stay together.”

Twenty-three years ago, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Since then, the Baltic country has become one of the global leaders in telecom infrastructure.

The country’s fast and extensive internet has given it an important economic edge over its neighbors.

Ramunas Cepaitis, Komitee IT: “Companies from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine come to us. They want to prevent their governments from interfering with their work. And they know that their documents and contracts are safe here in Lithuania.”

Like anywhere else, data protection and the right to privacy are hot-button issues here.

But trust in the state’s data protection laws is strong. And a personal electronic signature is usually sufficient to deal with any imaginable, administrative tasks.

Eddy Balcikonis, TrackDuck: “I even founded my Lithuanian company outside of the country — with an electronic signature. Afterwards I opened an account online, and once I was back in Lithuania, I could start work immediately.”

Lithuania’s internet coverage extends to almost every village. But whereas virtually every company takes care of administrative formalities online, only 50% of the population are as happy about online governments, privately.

To spread awareness, many universities offer electronic management courses to prospective civil servants.

Jolanta Sabaityte, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University: “Information about e-government is not yet widespread in Lithuania. Our students are also learning how to improve programs, so they can better serve the needs of Lithuania’s citizens.”

The Mazariene family, at least, are well versed in Lithuania’s wide-ranging e-government services.

Their next task will mostly likely be to register their daughter for kindergarten — online, of course.

Questions

1. Parents such as the Mazarienes prefer to register their newborns online. True or false? Why do they prefer registering their baby online? Are all governments enthusiastic about this?

2. Has Lithuania always been a global leader in e-government services?

3. Are Lithuanian businesses suspicious about their government spying on them?

4. Practically all of Lithuania has internet access. Is this right or wrong?

5. If people want to learn more about e-services, are there different courses and programs for them?

6. Almost everything (administration, registration) can be online in Lithuania. Yes or no?

 

A. Can people in you town, city and country do official things online?

B. Is there any resistance, worries, concerns or suspicions about online business and transactions?

C. Are there significant concerns regarding privacy, data security, hacking and spying?

D. Would you and your friends and colleagues like to conduct official business and informal activities online?

E. Can you think of examples traditional things that you would like to do or could be done online?

F. What will happen in the future?