- EBRD publishes Law in Transition Journal on e-government, digitalisation
- EBRD chiefs of policy and legal departments to speak at CEPS in Brussels
- Case studies include Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland and Ukraine
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will launch its Law in Transition Journal: Digitalising Government Services report today following a discussion on digitalisation at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels.
Law in Transition is the annual publication of the EBRD’s Legal Transition Programme, which focuses on legislative reform in the economies where the Bank’s operates.
The 2022 report, includes analysis of open government, the use of the cloud in the Polish public sector, e-procurement for public-private partnerships and concessions, the digitalisation of Mongolia’s mining geo-data, the digital enforcement of court decisions in Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine, and a new businessguide.ebrd.com resource for small and medium-sized enterprises in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The second theme of the report, sustainability, examines the role of lawyers in Paris alignment and environmental, social and governance reporting.
Michel Nussbaumer, Director of the EBRD Legal Transition Programme and the journal’s editor, said: “Countries that introduce digital tools will reap combined benefits. A good example is the Mongolian story. The EBRD helped Mongolia put in place a digital geological database of mining resources, which replaced obsolete paper-based registries with millions of pages. The benefits are twofold: boosting investor interest and strengthening mining-sector governance.”
Digital transition is one of the EBRD’s strategic priorities. The Bank offers both financial and technical support for policy reform, in cooperation with donors such as the European Union.
EBRD General Counsel Michael Strauss said: “The digital agenda has appeared as a cross-cutting theme in our technical assistance to governments over the last few years. The pandemic has accelerated the movement. During lockdown periods, digital platforms were often the only way for citizens to access government services.”
The launch event, co-organised with Brussels-based think-tank CEPS, will be attended by EBRD Vice-President for Policy Mark Bowman, as well as EBRD General Counsel Michael Strauss. The event will include a hybrid online/in-person panel discussion on “Building digital resilience: How new technologies can support rebuilding Ukraine and strengthen digital transformation in Eastern Neighbourhood countries”. Other high-level participants will include Pearse O’Donohue of DG Connect (European Commission), Nanna-Louise Wildfang-Linde of Microsoft, Karel Lannoo, CEO of CEPS and Tinatin Akhvlediani, a CEPS research fellow.
The launch and discussion can be watched live at 3 pm CET on 17 October on the CEPS YouTube channel.