Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Valeriya Ionan and the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economy and Communications of Estonia Ahti Kuningas held a meeting to discuss the results of Ukrainian-Estonian cooperation in the field of digitalization. The focus was on the importance of exchanging experience in implementing digital practices and joint achievements in building digital states.
Estonia is a global leader in digital transformation and the first country whose experience in building a digital state was studied by Ukraine. In particular, based on the Estonian X-road platform for registry interaction, we built the Ukrainian data exchange system Trembita.
The signing of the memorandum in 2022 marked the beginning of a new stage of cooperation between the two digital states. Estonia studied Ukraine's experience in building a state in a smartphone and implementing a mobile-first approach. Thus, Ukraine shared its experience with Estonian colleagues in implementing the Diia, working jointly with technical teams. This is the first case of such cooperation between Ukraine and another country.
"Estonia and Ukraine are a wonderful example of the synergy of two states. Ukraine aims to become the most convenient digital state in the world, so we are pleased that our experience in developing Diia has given Estonia new ideas and visions for the development of its own state on smartphones. I am particularly grateful to the Government of Switzerland for supporting the Estonian-Ukrainian partnership in the development of the mRiik pilot. I am confident that in the future, we will be able to implement joint projects already in the context of digitizing other states," said Valeriya Ionan.
The experience of working on and developing Diia allowed Estonia to accelerate the development of the pilot version of the mRiik application. Prior to this, all state services in Estonia were only available in web format. The pilot turned out to be successful, and Estonian colleagues were convinced of the need to create an application for simple and convenient interaction between citizens and the state.
At the same time, in the process of implementing the pilot project, Estonia identified another vector for the development of mRiik, where the application becomes part of a new concept of Estonia's digital transformation, aimed at creating a personalized government. Estonia will continue to work on the development of the mRiik application, taking into account the joint experience with Ukraine, while simultaneously resolving all legal barriers regarding the recognition of digital documents and implementing specific tools adopted from the Diia experience.
"Estonia sincerely values ​​partnership with Ukraine in the field of digitalization. The beta test of mRiik was successful, and we received a lot of positive feedback from users. The process of joint development helped us understand where and how Estonia should move forward in the process of digital transformation and the modernization of citizen-state interaction. We will continue to work with the Government of Ukraine, but now on new and equally important projects together with ESTDEV and EGA," said Ahti Kuningas in his speech.
It is worth noting that in 2023, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia signed a trilateral memorandum of cooperation in the field of digitalization for the first time. The establishment of a digital coalition marked the beginning of development and strengthening of cooperation in the fields of digitalization, e-governance, artificial intelligence, and open data. Additionally, bilateral cooperation in the cybersecurity domain is actively expanding, including information exchange on cyber threats and the international format "Tallinn Manual."
