Summary

Digital transformation is high on the government's agenda and Montenegro is aiming to rapidly deploy cost-effective, secure and citizen-centric and gender responsive e-services and coordinate implementation of ICT policies. The key to making digital transformation as the effective response to COVID-19 is to establish trust in a digital future for Montenegro, especially e-commerce and e-services, since the pandemic has showcased the value of ICT and digital transformation and how governments should accelerate the transition. It is important to implement mechanisms to raise awareness of community about the importance of digital services and tools, their efficiency and benefits such as reducing time and administrative procedures, cutting red tape, ease of monitoring the process of meeting requirements, direct communication with public administration. UNDP and  the Ministry are working on the improvement and interconnecting the current shared national infrastructure and software platforms while strengthening  the Ministry technical capacities and safety of the digital ecosystem, while raising awareness of community, especially women and marginalized groups.  

Background

Digital transformation is high on the government's agenda and Montenegro is aiming to rapidly deploy cost-effective, secure, and citizen-centric e-services and coordinate implementation of ICT policies. Apart from the PAR Strategy, the Government of Montenegro adopted the Strategy for Information Society Development 2020 and later in 2021 the Digital Transformation Strategy with a view to reach the EU standards set out in the Digital Agenda 2020 and the Digital Single Market Strategy. The country has an aim to ensure rapid digital development of the economy, achieve highest level of electronic services, increase the percentage of citizens and legal entities using e-services and increase the number of services at the e-Government portal.

Although the Government has made significant progress in legal framework adoption and made significant investments in infrastructure, these advances have not been sufficient to ensure efficient public administration. Namely, digital procedures and the use of digital tools by some of the public authorities are at a quite basic level and on the other hand, only few institutions have launched fully operational e-services. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the infrastructure, human resources, digital platforms, system for identification, authentication, and payment of administrative taxes in order to ensure development of citizen-centred and gender-responsive e-services and provide secure and safe digital environment.