After the announcement of the Global Networked Readiness Index in April, it became clear that Lithuania rose from  39th to 33rd position in 2007–2008. Experts predict that the country’s position will improve further in a year. According to Artūras Gruodis, director of Alna Software, a developer of customised software solutions, Lithuania could rise to 30th position in a year.

When formulating this index, account is taken of the situation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in countries on three dimensions: the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT.

According to Mr Gruodis, there was less progress in the business sector over the past year, and the number of new electronic services was increasing slower that in other countries. At the same time, the situation in the public sector was improving faster than in other countries.

Trend Remains Similar

“The trend remains similar this year. Given the uncertainty regarding the country’s economy, business will not invest much into the introduction of new electronic services. The situation is better in the public sector. Previously, the Electronic Tax Declaration System of the State Tax Inspectorate was the best known of the widely used e-government solutions while this year will see the growing popularity of Sodra’s and the Register Centre’s electronic services for private individuals and businesses; the services for declaration of the place of residence, and payment of child benefit and maternity allowance introduced by the Information Society Development Committee, and the automatic English-to-Lithuanian translation system of Vytautas Magnus University.

That will give a substantial boost to IT progress indices in the public sector,” Mr Gruodis said.

An incentive for the development of e-government services was provided by financing from EU Structural Funds, which enabled the implementation of many projects that will be beneficial to citizens and allow them to save time and money.

IT Infrastructure Improves

Lithuania’s networked readiness rating should be further improved by the expansion of IT infrastructure and growth in Internet accessibility. According to Mr Gruodis, this year the installation of WiMax should begin, and fast wireless Internet will be more accessible in outlying areas. In this respect, we are still behind Estonia, where WiMax is already operational.

Although Lithuanian business is not too active in the introduction of electronic services, it has the greatest influence on the accessibility of IT and telecommunications. We take second place in the world in terms of mobile penetration, and the number of households having a computer went up to 42%, 96% of which also have Internet access. The Internet was used by 49% of the population aged 16–74.

Mr Gruodis says that, as in the case of mobile connection previously, this growth was mostly aided by the special offers of telecommunications companies, which distributed free computers with the purchase of Internet access.

State’s Role is Smaller

As with IT infrastructure, business made the greatest contribution to Internet accessibility and the state’s role was considerably smaller. In this sense, the role of the alliance ‘Window to the Future’ was significant.

In the future, this project will be expanded, and more people will be educated about using electronic services. It can be predicted that the alliance will give the population a very strong incentive to use the Internet efficiently and to understand the benefit of electronic services.

In evaluating individual progress criteria, the authors of the Global Networked Readiness Index determined the strengths and weaknesses of each country in the field of information technologies and mobile communications. In Lithuania, a lower evaluation was given to such fields as the state’s vision of IT development, the tax burden, and aid for the development of cutting-edge technologies.

Lack of Strategy

The authors of the index also evaluated poorly the general attitude of the Lithuanian government towards IT. This was caused by the absence of a clear long-term strategy. The absence of a long-term IT vision is illustrated by the absence of electronic signature infrastructure and lack of the active use of e-government opportunities by the government itself. For example, in the neighbouring Estonia, all legislation is published online, where it can be discussed and commented on before approval.

Where the progress of individual state institutions in the field of electronic services is concerned, institutions under the government, especially ministries and administrative regions, are evaluated best. All of them have organised first-level electronic services well: people can already find all the necessary information online. The situation is worse at the municipal and neighbourhood level.

“Unfortunately, this level is the most important: citizens settle most matters that are of relevance to them at local authorities. If they could get information from municipalities and submit it online, it would do a great service to the general progress of IT literacy in the country,” Mr Gruodis said.

According to him, the Information Society Development Committee, among others, would be quite happy to finance the development of such services, and funding has been projected for this purpose. Municipalities and neighbourhoods, however, have not prepared a sufficient number of good projects. The Association of Municipalities could make a greater contribution too, and the government could allocate additional funds for the preparation of projects; such measures would really promote the development of e-government in the outlying regions and make it closer to people.