Estonian parlt committee chair, Austrian econmin discuss digitization

  • 2021-09-06
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - At a meeting on Monday, chairman of the economic affairs committee of the Estonian parliament Kristen Michal and Austrian Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schrambock discussed the digital economy, digitization and cyber security.

Michal said that Estonia has good repute as an e-state and the country serves as a role model for others.

"When it comes to creating a digital and democratic society, cooperation between member states in all areas of life is crucial. The meeting with Margarete Schrambock today also showed that based on its experience, Estonia has an important task of contributing to EU member states having the skills for developing and using new technologies. For example, Austria is interested in Estonia's success in implementing digital platforms in education as well as in how to fully digitize communication between the state and its citizens. The need for doing so has grown due to COVID-19 in particular," Michal said.

The economic affairs committee chairman said that with the use of online environments for the purpose of work increasing during the pandemic, the issue of cyber security has become particularly urgent.

"We also focused at our meeting on cyber security. Large well-coordinated cyber incidents occur on a nearly daily basis and the threat of attacks is constantly growing, as is the competence of the attackers. Preparedness and cooperation between states for protecting themselves is important," Michal said.

The meeting was also attended by Raul Rikk, head of the national cyber security department of the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.