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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Namibia Looks to Estonia for E-Governance |
| 2004-09-15 |
| High-tech Estonia's experiences in using information technology in public governance will soon reach Africa as the Baltic nation has been invited to help Namibia develop its e-governance system, officials said Tuesday. Ivar Tallo, director of the publicly funded E-Governance Academy in Tallinn, said he will present Estonia's case at a technology seminar to be held in the coastal city of Windhoek at the end of September. "The Namibian government has developed a strategy for e-governance and they are now looking to receive Estonian know-how in building the system," Tallo told AP. In Estonia, virtual and nearly paperless Cabinet meetings have been a reality for several years. Ministers routinely follow Cabinet meetings through flat-panel screens, seen as a major time-saver. The Baltic nation of 1.4 million has also been highly successful in building electronic banking and mobile commerce applications. The usage rate of Internet in Estonia is one of the highest among the 10 new members of the European Union, which has earned the country the nickname "e-stonia." Tallo said the E-Governance Academy -- which has so far trained government officials in information technology from countries in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe -- will receive financial aid for the Namibia project from the German training institution Inwent. Though Estonia and Namibia are thousands of kilometers (miles) apart, Tallo said there are similarities in the demographics of the two countries -- both are relatively poor and have small populations. Namibia has less than 2 million inhabitants. "This will be our first venture in Africa," Tallo said. "The Estonian government has strongly encouraged us to expand operations beyond the country's borders so it's a logical step." The E-Governance Academy was created in 2002 through an initiative of the Estonian government, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and The Open Society Institute. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |