e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

40. As a result of these earlier government decisions, there seems to be a belief in the government’s
ability to set the stage for market-driven growth through strategic investments and visionary planning. The
Finnish government has tried to achieve some major objectives by encouraging competitive economic
practices, by implementing new operating models and by providing online services. The government’s
strategy to enhance the information society is based on the following five main points: 6
x Information technology and information networks as tools in the renewal of the private and
the public sector.
x The information industry to become an important sector of economic activity in Finland.
x Professional expertise in ICT to be maintained at a high overall level, with selected peaks.
x Everyone to have the opportunity and basic skills to use the services of the information
society.
x Finnish information infrastructure to be competitive and capable of providing high-quality
services.
41. The 2001 Information Society Advisory Board (ISAB) Programme of Action to Promote Online
Government provided additional strategies in order to address these broad goals (see box 4.1).
42. In order to strengthen the use of IT as an instrument for renewing the public sector, the Ministry
of Transport and Communications has launched a development project on electronic commerce. Its aim is
to use the means available to the public sector to promote the business activities of electronic
communication networks and the introduction of new technologies. The measures are directed at
developing the communication infrastructure and increasing the trust of users and actors. 7 The Ministry of
Trade and Industry, for its part, has programmes to promote entrepreneurship and to develop the use of ecommerce
by SMEs. In 1999, the government launched a project aimed at improving the vision of Finland
as a content-industry country 8 in addition to its leadership role in data communications technology.
43. The development of the information society has not been limited to generating economic growth.
The Ministry of Education has promoted IT skills development and access to the Internet through its
network of public libraries. Through its policy of decentralisation, the government has also moved central
administration offices out of the Helsinki region, drawing on the networking potential of ICT to promote
regional development and employment. (For a discussion of Finnish activities to address the digital divide,
see Part 3.4, “The ‘digital divide’”).
44. Another important example of government foresight, with far-reaching consequences for later egovernment
applications, concerns the collection and use of personal data and other basic information. The
Finnish government, like that of the other Nordic countries, has long maintained information registers on
citizens covering variables such as inhabitants, dwellings, enterprises and motor vehicles. In the 1970s, the
6 These guidelines are contained in the MoF proposal, Finland’s Way to the Information Society: The National
Strategy and its Implementation, December 1996.
7 These projects contain six different subprojects regarding development (NetMate, on improving the prerequisite of
digital service production, on usability of services of the Information Society) and regulation. See Finland as an
Information Society: The Report of the Information Society Advisory Board to the Government, 2001.
8 The term ”content industry” refers to the production of documentary, cultural, educational, research, entertainment
or marketing content for electronic media and related business activities.
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