Each year, the Digital Agenda commission
of the European Union offers figures that let people gauge the advances and
imbalances countries show regarding the performance of their Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT).
This year
Denmark ranked first in ICT use,
according to the average global ranking of the Digital Economic and Society Index (DESI) published by the EU.
The European Union started the Europe 2020 growth strategy, which has five targets for growth attainable by means of seven “flagship initiatives”. One of these is the Digital Agenda, which defines the route European nations must follow to meet their objectives for 2020. The DESI gauges the advances in the digital domain.
Denmark stands out on account of their
Internet use, their integration of
digital technology, and their use of public digital services (e-Government).
The country’s performance is especially
strong in e-Government. It has been at the vanguard of digital public services
for years; in 2015 it ranked first, and it slipped to second place this
year.
Despite this good performance, authorities
do not seem to be completely satisfied, and in order to go back to number one,
Denmark has designed a new electronic management strategy (2016-2020). Despite not
being published yet, we know this strategy aims to strengthen their leadership
in the Public Digitization Service, which from 2011 to 2015 was highly
ambitious and successful.
Estonia, which surpasses Denmark, developed
in 2015 an Internet voting system that has allowed Estonians to vote remotely
from any location.
This electoral technology has given Estonia
the capacity to implement digital solutions to empower their citizens, and they
have become a worldwide reference when it comes to elections, turnout and
digital governance.
