OREANDA-NEWS. December 22, 2009. Government of Karelia discussed results of work in 2009 on foundation of the e-government in the republic. Formation of this mechanism so important in the context of modern information society in recent years became one of the mainstreams of the government reform capable of essential improvement of quality and efficiency of work of the authority. At the session of Presidium of the State Council held a year ago in Petrozavodsk and devoted to implementation of the Strategy of information society development in Russia President of the country Dmitry Medvedev has paid attention to necessity of granting citizens of the country an opportunity to communicate with the authority through the home computer and also to receive qualitative services and even to trace passage of their appeals to authorities.

Priorities in this direction of development of the society have been defined by the Concept f of the e-government formation in the Russian Federation through to 2010. These are increase of openness of the information on activity of authorities, rendering of the e-government services and introduction of systems of electronic document circulation.

Opening session of the Karelian Government Head of the republic Sergey Katanandov has mentione that work on formation of the e-government carried out in recent years all over the country concerns every citizen and almost all spheres of life. "People today face many problems, and one of them is bureaucracy and low efficiency of work of the authority. Therefore, in shortest time we should simplify interaction between the people and authority, provide granting of government services publicly, openly, publicly and in short terms. Today it is a complex task demanding both new equipment and additional funds, and also serious changes in knowledge and skills of people," – Sergey Katanandov said.

To solve these tasks in Karelia there has been launched the Informatization of the Republic of Karelia in 2008-2012 Regional target program. In the republic there operate the Informatization Council, the Commission for Implementation of the Administrative Reform, the Working Group on Formation of the e-Government. Moreover, as researches indicate, Karelia today is one of the ten regions most ready for the information society. According to the Acting Assistant to the Prime Mnister, Chief of the Administration of the Head of the Republic Lyudmila Kosyuk has told about work accomplished todayin this sphere in the republic.

The first direction of this work is increase of openness of the information concerning activity of the authority, today it is implemented by means of the Official Internet Portal of the Republic of Karelia. The portal operates 24 hours a day and today it is one of a few official portals of constituent regions of the federation which supports 3 languages simultaneously. The Karelian resource is daily visited by more than two thousand people, one third of them is from abroad. In 2009 total amount of information published on the portal has grown by 28%. To make it easier to imagine such volumes of information we may add that it will take one person about 7 years just to read through and see all materials of the portal. Within the past year both design of the Portal has changed, and its content. Special attention is paid to increase of interactivity of services, development of new formats of dialogue with the population and feedback mechanisms.

New technologies are actively used in Karelian economy, medicine, employment service, culture, and other spheres. Medical consulting by means of telemedicine became already habitual at carrying out of complex surgeries. In search of new job resident of the capital of Karelia or regional centres may come to the Internet-kiosk in local employment service or visit a special Internet resource the largest among which today is http://trudvsem.ru. In the same way Internet-resources are used by employeres in searches of workers. New information systems take active part in formation of government and municipal orders, in drawing up databases of addressees for social support. The First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lev Shustov, Minister of of Health and Social Development of the RK Elmira Zilber, Minister of Labour and Employment of the RK Giviy Karapetov, Deputy Minister of Culture and Public Relations of the RK Yaroslava Borozdina have told participants of the session about details of introduction of new information technologies.

The task mentioned by the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev is also carried out. Program solution which will allow to track how authorities process people's appeals has been developed in Karelia and is on beta testing now. On the Portal there have appeared sections intended for the most different groups of visitors, Virtual Reception Rooms have been created on pages of authorities. In August there has been opened the video-blog of the Head of the Republic of Karelia. There citizens have an opportunity to familiarize with personal opinion of the Head of the republic on vital questions and to leave their comments. Internet public opinion polls re held on a regular basis on the most significant subjects: from support of citizens and business in the context of the crisis to discussion of moral values of citizens of the republic.

Modern technologies more and more are introduced in the control system. The President of Russia sets a specific target: to provide rendering in electronic form for no less than 60 key government services by 2012. On the day of carrying out of the session of Karelian Government, December 15, there opened the Federal portal of government and municipal services http://gosuslugi.ru and the same day the basic version of the Portal of government services of the republic http://service.karelia.ru/ has entered the stage of pilot production. Now it is necessary to organize interaction of these two electronic resources. Karelian Portal contains names of 125 government services rendered by authorities. Information support is rendered for 52 government services: in the sphere of civil registration; establishment and acknowledgement of citizens' legal status; privity; labour and employment, etc. On 43 services the Portal offers application forms and other documents necessary for reception of government services.

All these matters will also demand qualitative changes inside of the administrative mechanism: introduction of electronic document circulation in the long term will allow to turn back upon high material and time costs inevitable at use of so-called 'paper' technologies. To receive a service it will be not necessary to beat down doors pending another refernce, but obtain the result on the principle of 'one panel'. Of course, it is in the lap of the future.

In the near future it is necessary to continue modernization the control system, communications channels and equipment. It is necessary to involve municipal authority and federal structures in this work. All works are planned stage by stage for five years and will be completed by the end of 2012. The closing stage of work provides final introduction of technologies of electronic interaction in granting government services, which actually meand complete switch to electronic services.

As a result, which the President of Russia mentioned many times, introduction of the e-government will have a beneficial effect on solution of the anti-corruption task, will lower necessity for citizens contact representatives of authorities directly when they receive government services, will increase transparency of work of the authority.

"We have no opportunities to relax, – Head of Karelia Sergey Katanandov has reminded participants of the session. – Time is marching on. It seems many citizens of Karelia have learned to receive and read information by means of Internet quite recently. In the next two years we should as much as possible abandon circulation of paper documents and switch to new electronic forms of interaction with the population, learn to render services according to modern technologies. It is tremendous work which will demand both financial investments, and hard work".

On December 23 session of the State Council of the Russian Federation will be held in Moscow. On the agenda of thesession there will be the issue the most important for everyone – introduction of modern information technologies in the sphere of granting government services.