On 23 November, the Conference “eState: Progress of Lithuania’s Digitisation” was held. During the Conference, the representatives of various companies and institutions discussed the country’s digital transformation, tools and instruments for a smooth implementation of the processes, the integrity of the state information resources, and other topics related to the state digitisation.

In the first part of the Conference “Digital transformation: challenges, resources and lessons”, representatives of the State Data Agency gave a presentation “The State Data Lake: is it time to swim?”. Milda Aksamitauskienė, Data Resource Analyst at the State Data Governance Information System Division, presented the new functions of the State Data Agency, the implementation of the re-use of health data, and the Project “Integration of State Information Resources into the State Data Lake” funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The main objective of the Project is not only to have data in one place but also to increase the country’s resilience to threats. The practical implementation of the Project was presented by Project Manager Laurynas Truncė. The Project team currently comprises more than 40 people with different specialisations: information managers, programmers, analysts, database administrators and data lawyers. The Project team cooperates with 181 institutions. The institutions’ data are inventoried in order to ensure their availability and use for decision-making.

At the beginning of the event, Mindaugas Glodas, CEO of NRD Companies, presented Lithuania’s achievements in the field of eGovernment and international perspectives. Mindaugas Glodas drew attention to Lithuania’s high ratings in the global context. For example, the World Bank GovTech Maturity Index 2022 shows that Lithuania ranks 8th among 198 countries (39th in 2020), and according to the European Commission’s European eGovernment Benchmark 2023, Lithuania ranks 7^th among 35 countries. The main reasons for Lithuania’s high ranking: more than 90 per cent of services have been digitised and are available online, and initiatives relevant to citizens are implemented (e.g. modernisation of filling of the State Tax Inspectorate declarations, introduction of e-prescriptions). 

The discussion “eState journey: where are we, what challenges are we facing, where are we heading?” was attended by Erika Kuročkina, Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania, Rima Valentukevičienė, President of the Lithuanian digital technology association Infobalt, Adomas Bužinskas, Director of Vilnius City Municipality Administration, and Modestas Gelbūda, Chancellor of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Erika Kuročkina pointed out that innovations and digital solutions introduced in the private sector must be also transferred to the public sector, and this requires a change in the culture of thinking. Another important need is political leadership and a clear strategic direction, the benefits and value of which would be felt by all. Rima Valentukevičienė noted that today there is less and less competition, and there is a willingness to cooperate and work together both among companies and in the public sector. The participants of the discussion agreed that international cooperation is also very important for the country – finding partners abroad and adapting best practices. Adomas Bužinskas noted that the capital of Lithuania is already visible in the world, for example, this autumn, the European Commission declared Vilnius the European Green Capital – such award has been earned thanks to the solutions implemented in different areas, including information technology. The idea of a digital ministry, which would concentrate the functions of different state institutions in one place, was also raised during the discussion.

The full video of the Conference can be viewed here.