Conference overview 2010

Conference conclusions and final remarks

The advancement of the Information Society calls for the involvement of diverse stakeholders, including international organizations; governments, parliaments and other public institutions; the private sector; academia and the civil society.

Our aim is to integrate those stakeholders and develop a knowledge sharing platform that would enable us to continuously exchange experiences and thoughts about the e-Democracy enhancement in the region. We certainly hope to stay in touch with all the Conference’s participants and discuss issues related to the implementation of the information and communication technologies in the public institutions which would contribute to the advancement of the Information Society.

The first step to achieve this will be the publishing of the e-Democracy 2010 Conference report that will contain all the interesting ideas and conclusions from the Conference.

These are the main conclusions that were brought at the e-Democracy Conference 2010:

• Macedonia has a very big advantage in implementing ICT in the public institutions compared to the countries in the region. The Macedonian positive experiences regarding the implementation of e-government solutions should be used as a very good example for the other countries in the region. The other countries should follow this example and learn how to apply the Macedonian experience in their countries.
• Use of new ICT technologies for empowering citizens to take action in representative democracy especially social networking. Capitalize on the benefits of ICT to function effectively, to interact with the public, and to collaborate with other parliaments around the world.
• Regional approach to eDemocracy, permanent regional cooperation and share of vision. SEE region has a unique eParticipation potential in relation to the Western Europe. When we say that the public institutions should collaborate between themselves, we do not only mean collaboration between institutions in the same country, but also regional collaboration that would provide exchange of experiences and good practices. This e-Democracy Conference is an example of how public institutions, politicians, policy makers, experts from international organizations, academia and business can be gathered in order to engage in dialog on the role that ICT can play in improving democracy.
• Institutions shall build social trust (transparency, accountability). Transparency and accountability - All public institutions should be transparent and accountable in their work by providing to the citizens not just general information about the institution but also more specific documents and information concerning legislation, budget, activities of members etc.
• Transformational government (citizen-centricity, skills). E participation is not a choice: e participation will happen whether you like it or not. A government’s only choice is whether to react defensively to it, or to engage pro actively in ways which create public value.
• Planning and management - The public institutions should have a long term vision about their development and based on that vision should develop a strategic plan with included schedules, milestones, resources allocation (human, financial, internal, external etc.)
• Political will – Having the necessary political will and commitment is crucial for the successful implementation of e-Democracy. Democracy and ICT themselves are not enough to realize the vision about making public institutions transparent, accountable and accessible unless there is somebody that can carry out that vision and provide the necessary support and leadership for the implementation of that vision