Estonia, Ukraine, UK commit to intensify cooperation in the field of digital

TALLINN – Estonia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom signed a tripartite memorandum of cooperation last week, on the basis of which they will promote cooperation in the field of e-governance and digitalization.

The memorandum enables the countries to exchange best practices with each other and implement joint projects in the fields of artificial intelligence, data, public digital services and innovation, the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications said in a press release.

Minister of Economic Affairs and IT Tiit Riisalo, who signed the agreement on behalf of Estonia, said Estonia has been at the forefront of digital governance for decades and is always ready to share its experiences.

"At the same time, we can also learn from others, and the cooperation with Ukraine's Diia in the development of our mRiik app is a good example of this," Riisalo said. "Like Estonia, Ukraine has built a powerful digital state, but they have done it in a very short time, at a time when the country is at war. I believe that both we and our British counterparts have a lot to learn from their experience on how to make public governance more flexible and make new technologies work best for their citizens," the minister added.

At the June 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, the government of Ukraine showcased its excellence in e-governance.  Digitalisation has been a key part of Ukraine’s efforts to transform the state long before the start of the full-scale war and more than proved its worth in the early days of the invasion.  Ukraine’s flagship e-governance app, Diia, is a world-leading innovation, delivering over 100 public services to over 50 per cent of the population, including those displaced internally or externally. As testament to its success, the Diia model is now being exported internationally, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a press release.

The memorandum opens up a number of topics for tripartite cooperation, with a focus on artificial intelligence and open data. The countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the field of e-governance. In particular, they will work together on the digitalization of processes and the provision of digital services to citizens.

In addition to Riisalo, the agreement was signed by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, minister of state at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's deputy prime minister for innovation, education, science and technology and minister for digital transformation.