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

• Creation of a competitive market for the supply of ICT, with government being responsible
for removing market failures.
• The public sector having a key role in promoting national ICT development by using its
influence as a consumer, and by providing e-government to both individuals and businesses.
Based on these principles, government ICT policy currently has three major goals:
• Creating growth in Danish business and industry.
• Qualifying Danes for the future knowledge society (including by offering them a wider range
of relevant and useful public services via the Internet).
• Reforming the public sector.
Public sector reform is supported and enabled by using ICT to: 1) increase public sector
efficiency and productivity in providing coherent and user-focused public services; and 2) improve the
internal organisation and operations of the public sector, and the way it interacts with both citizens and
businesses. This strong linkage between Danish e-government and ICT policy is evidence of the fact
that e-government has its origins in ICT policy, and also of the MVTU’s continued close involvement
in e-government since the creation of the Digital Task Force in 2001.
There has been more success in building organisations’ understanding of the relationship between
e-government and government ICT policy than with public sector modernisation. Many interviewees
were able to chart the development of e-government from its beginnings in the 1990s ICT policies,
and most were very clear about the link between e-government and current ICT policies. In particular
areas, such as development of the Danish “enterprise architecture” (see Chapter 6), the interfaces
between the two policy areas appear almost seamless, with officials clearly understanding how one
policy area contributes to the other. The survey data presented in Figure 4.4 in Chapter 4 shows that,
after major initiatives of the e-government programme such as eDay, the Danish enterprise
architecture is one of the most significant drivers of e-government, being identified as “important” by
30% of survey respondents. Given the highly technical nature of enterprise architecture, this is a
significant result. It is also interesting to note that, ten years after its inception, the 1995 IT action plan
is still regarded as a significant driver of e-government by nearly 10% of survey respondents.
Improving public sector efficiency
There is a strong economic case for e-government based on the Government’s commitment to
making the public sector more efficient. The approach to addressing this challenge – laid out in 2000
in a 10-year economic framework called A Sustainable Future – Denmark 2010 (“the 2010 plan”) – is
to boost employment, restrain growth in public spending and reduce government debt. The public
sector represents a large share of Danish GDP, providing over one-third of all jobs. Achieving
improvements in the efficiency of the public sector will have an important impact on the future fiscal
sustainability of the welfare state.
Denmark has recognised that, among other things, achieving these goals requires public
investment in the improved use of ICT in government. The importance of using e-government to
achieve efficiency gains was heavily reinforced in the latest e-government strategy released in 2004.
As shown in Figure 3.1, the e-government strategy identifies economic pressures (expressed as
“limited resources”) as a major issue to be addressed by e-government. This challenge translates into a
number of strategic goals, most obviously the commitment to ensuring that 75% of all digitalisation
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