OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

other reforms. The plan identified specific benefits that ICT could deliver to Danes, such as a better
quality of life and increased economic growth. It also pointed out that “new” jobs would go to the
“front-runner” countries. Denmark’s use of ICT could henceforth be considered a question related to
the welfare of Danish society.
The Danish model for ICT development formulated in the report was based on a mix of market
forces and public sector involvement. This mix was considered necessary to attain the following goals:
• ICT should support free access to, and exchange of, information.
• ICT should support democracy and give individuals the opportunity to exercise their
influence.
• ICT should support peoples’ personal development, both at work and in their leisure time.
• ICT should support openness and transparency in the public sector, contribute to the
promotion of efficiency and rationalisation in public institutions, and enable them to provide
better services.
• ICT should be used to sustain the disadvantaged of society.
The report emphasised the importance of public institutions and businesses being tied together by
means of modern ICT in order to create new and better services for citizens. It determined that the
public administration at both the State and local levels must be connected by an “electronic service
network”, which would enable it to provide better services for both citizens and businesses, and result
in a more efficient administration with which businesses and citizens would have the ability to
communicate digitally. In support of this, legislation around public registers had to be reviewed and
simplified so that registration, combination and use of data for all legal and administrative purposes
could take place without barriers being created by unnecessary bureaucratic procedures.
Other major objectives set by the report included establishment of a nationwide health network
for exchange of information between doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and health authorities, and an
electronic network where all businesses could exchange business documents (i.e. EDI). Overall, the
objectives were very wide-ranging, covering not only general public administration and the health and
business sectors, but also research, personal data protection, information security, education, culture,
the media, telecommunications, transport, and issues related to people with disabilities. A key policy
goal was creation of a “public network” of computer and telecommunications networks which, to
average citizens and businesses, would appear to be as easy to understand and as readily accessible as
the telephone system.
The Danish Government’s IT action plans
Publication of the first IT action plan started a tradition of government submitting annual IT
action plans to the Parliament. Created by the Ministry of Research and Information Technology, the
plans put the major themes of the information society in the foreground of public attention and
political debate, took stock of the current situation, and adjusted the course if ICT developments in
Denmark.
The 1995 IT action plan contained specific goals and deadlines; priority was given to solving
some key problems such as infrastructure development, legislative updating, and the establishment of
standards. The strategy was to advance along a broad front aimed at generating a synergy between
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