StrategEast continues a series of online panels on how the technology could lead to an overall transformation in Eurasia. At the discussion on May, 6 the experts were focusing on the digital transformation of businesses in an emergency mode at the times of COVID-19 pandemic and preparedness of state structures for this challenge.

Thomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia, a Eurasian country which has first undergone digital transformation, shared his personal experience of digitalization in Estonia, and emphasized that the key to successful digitalization was creating viable legal infrastructure. According to Mr. Ilves, the second task for the state interested in moving public services online is to make them user friendly. In Estonia, these problems were resolved, and the country was well prepared and already digitalized as it faced today’s challenges.

Natalija Gelvanovska-Garcia, Senior ICT Policy Specialist at the World Bank spoke about the primary objectives of the Digital CASA program to bring reliable and affordable Internet services to the CASA (Central Asia, South Asia) countries. According to Ms. Gelvanovska-Garcia, the main obstacle to digitalization in the region is low internet penetration. Thus, Tajikistan’s internet tariffs are amongst the highest in the world. In other countries, in many remote areas, there is simply no technical infrastructure for Internet access.

Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine named the low level of digital literacy, lack of basic digital skills among the population as the main obstacles to digitalization. “About 50 percent of people simply do not understand what is happening. And our task is to develop basic digital skills, provide the citizens with the opportunity for hands-on experience and demonstrate that communicating with the state online is safe,” the deputy minister explained. “Our goal is to ensure a 100 percent transition of government services online.” According to Mr. Bornyakov, the launch of the Diia [Action] mobile application as part of the State in a Smartphone project in Ukraine, is the first time in history when something “produced” by the Ukrainian government is so successful.

The discussion was moderated by Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast. In his closing remarks, Mr. Motkin emphasized the need for trans-Eurasian cooperation in digital transformation and called international financial institutions and international donors for the development of universal programs to support digitalization, which could be applied in all Eurasian countries.