Estonia, Good for Business, Legislation, Technology

The court of the Sulaymaniyah governorate of the regional government of Kurdistan announced a tender for the contract to develop the court information system in 2014. The tender was won by the Estonian IT company Aktors, which signed the agreement on the development of the system in October 2014, a spokesperson for Aktors said.

To carry out the contract, the services of several Estonian and local subcontractors were used, the biggest of which are Net Group, Vorguvara, Primend, and Meco. Also the Estonian Center of Registers and Information Systems, which runs the relevant Estonian system, came to the developer's aid.

The court system of the governorate of Sulaymaniyah, which has a population of two million people, contains all types of courts from civil courts to criminal and appeals courts, altogether 31 courts with a workforce of 450. The goal of the introduction of the information system was making the paper-based court system digital in all types of court.

The first civil court in Sulaymaniyah switched to the new system in April 2015 and by now courts of all types have joined it. Also the prosecutor's office and the police have been linked up to the new system.

In the course of the project Estonian companies built up the entire system, including server rooms and cabling, and developed necessary software. They also trained users of the system and helped implement the system. The provision of technical support will continue during three years from the day of the handover of the system.

The system was handed over to the contracting authority at the end of May. The opening ceremony on June 4 is to be attended by leading politicians from the regional government of Kurdistan, leaders of the regional Supreme Court and the governorate of Sulaymaniyah.