Below are specific sectoral strategies outlined within this document to achieve the IT policy objectives:
Education and Research and Development
Priority activities in Estonia’s education and research and development fields include improving upon the level of IT literacy by increasing computer-based learning opportunities; creating appropriate conditions for improvements in the quality of higher education for technological fields; developing a system of continuing education for the purpose of training IT support personnel; training high-level IT specialists; training of educational specialists with the ICT skills required for teaching their chosen subject; increasing eLearning in schools and improving their IT foundation; publishing educational materials in Estonian to the internet; promoting scientific research in the IT field; participating in EU programmes for research and development; elaborating upon the national ICT programme; and augmenting the level of and participation in international/European technological cooperation initiatives.
Business
Estonia’s priority actions for ICT business development include supporting IT companies and other IT subject matter experts (SMEs) in gaining access to export markets and improving upon their business competence; improving legislation related to eBusiness and developing structures for IT support; and expanding upon eBusiness standards and raising awareness of them among the general population.
Culture
Estonia will leverage the capacity of technology to preserve cultural heritage and render it accessible for educational and scientific purposes by creating centralised databases for public libraries and developing e-services for reader use; ensuring the digital preservation of national heritage and its integration with the electronic systems of educational institutions through the development of a national programme; collecting digital information for archiving; and digitising existing records.
Health
In an effort to shift its current health system from an institution-centred approach to an integrated human-centred approach, Estonia will prioritise the development of the Digital Health Record, in which an individual’s health issues throughout their lifetime will be summarised and made accessible to the entire health sector for better patient treatment. E-services related to health will also be implemented, in order to provide greater patient accessibility to health services.
Environment and Spatial Data
Spatial and environmental data is the basis upon which socio-economic development and economic activity regulation is formed, necessitating accurate information-gathering and categorisation in this area. In addition to continuing to develop e-services on spatial data within the existing Land Information System, priorities in environment and spatial data include the development of a general national register for storing and linking environmental data and related databases, and the development of a land and spatial data information infrastructure.
Government
The ICT priorities for the public administration field include fast-tracking the development of services facilitating electronic communication between the state and citizens; ensuring equal opportunities for regional ICT development through coordination of all levels of government; promoting electronic solutions through cooperation between the public and private sectors; optimising state databases; developing database support systems for all levels of government; drafting IT security policy principles; modernising of public sector management of electronic documents; archiving public records digitally; developing annual training priorities in line with ICT policy; expanding eDemocracy through development of IT solutions such as an eVoting system; expanding administrative capacity for population data collection and information accessibility; developing a Police and Border Guard information system; establishing or improving IT support systems for the administration of EU structural funds; collecting and disseminating statistics on Estonia’s information society; developing IT systems for the purpose of improving tax and customs procedures; and promoting Estonia internationally through the use of IT solutions.
