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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 12:24

Foreign trade, IT minister invites Estonia's neighboring countries to join X-Road

BC, Tallinn, 28.11.2019.Print version
t a meeting with his Nordic and Baltic colleagues, Estonian Foreign Trade and Information Technology Minister Kaimar Karu invited Estonia's neighboring countries to also join the X-Road data exchange layer, writes LETA/BNS.

Karu and his colleagues discussed the region's digital development, e-governance solutions and further cooperation areas at the meeting, which was held in Riga. "I believe that the Nordic and Baltic region is the most pragmatic in the world," Karu said.


"Here, there is already close cooperation between countries in finding and implementing practical solutions, but there are many opportunities for further action from that. When it comes to cross-border e-services, it is important to find a way to also use these services securely across borders. And this is where the pride and joy of our e-state -- the X-Road -- comes into play," the minister said.


In order to develop the core technology of the X-Road, Estonia is cooperating with Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands through the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) non-profit association of Estonia and Finland.


The objective of NIIS is to ensure the development and strategic management of the X-Road and other cross-border e-governance infrastructure. The work of the non-profit association is a strategic interest of Estonia to ensure the higher quality and international interoperability of the X-Road, while also optimizing development expenses and organization.


"This region has been very cutting edge in the field of e-governance and the digital economy, and the secure and transparent cross-border sharing of data between the governments of our countries would enable us to maintain this position. The NIIS cooperation model is unique in the world -- for the first time, countries are jointly developing the core technology of e-governance, and Estonia's interest is that are many countries as possible use namely our X-Road technology as the interoperability solution," the minister added.


Karu also shared with the digital ministers Estonia's experience with the practical implementation of machine learning, artificial intelligence initiatives and code repository, which makes the code and software solutions created for the state freely available to and reusable by anyone.


During meeting with the Nordic and Baltic ministers, Karu also met with Latvian President Egils Levits, took part in an international 5G roundtable and also met with Norwegian Minister of Digitization Nikolai Astrup.






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