Ukraine joins EU’s Govtech4all project as first non-EU country

Ukraine joined the Govtech4all incubator, an initiative of the European Union Govtech Association, which seeks to enhance government efficiency through digitalization.

The Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science, and Technology – Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, reported this.

Ukraine became the first non-EU country to join Govtech4all.

"I am grateful to the president and co-founder of the Lisbon Council, Paul Hofheinz, for the invitation and faith in digital Ukraine," said Fedorov.

^{Photo: Telegram / FEDOROV}

As reported, the incubator for govtech products was launched during the Digital Transformation Summit in Brussels, where the Ukrainian minister spoke about the Ukrainian digital experience.

"In three years, we have completely changed the philosophy of public services. And today, Ukraine is ready to share expertise with European partners to develop innovative solutions and achieve top results jointly," the head of the ministry emphasized.

Fedorov stated they had a shared objective: to develop additional digital products so citizens could access comfortable and efficient public services without queuing or bureaucracy.

At the first stage, three pilot projects will be developed, which are planned to be implemented during 2023-2025. Six million euros are provided for them.

As reported, 14 countries and 21 partner organizations have joined Govtech4all. Among them are the Ministry of Digital and the Ukrainian Fund for Startups.

For reference:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is strengthening digital support for Ukraine and will support the development of "Diia" in other countries. The agency planned to allocate 650,000 dollars to form an approach to the distribution of the digital experience of Ukraine and the mobile application "Diia" to other countries.

At the Davos Forum, Estonia presented the mRiik application, which was developed based on the Ukrainian "Diia" and is its analog.

In January, USAID announced that it would support those countries that want to advance through digital transformation and develop their e-government capabilities. The Agency is currently working with Colombia and Zambia.

Also, after the launch of the Estonian application mRiik based on the Ukrainian e-government application "Diia," Ethiopia and Zanzibar started creating their own application based on Ukrainian technology.

The "Diia" mobile app, a web portal and brand of e–governance, was launched in 2020 and permits Ukrainian citizens to use digital documents on their smartphones instead of physical documents for identification and sharing. In addition, the "Diia" portal provides access to over 50 governmental services, with a long–term vision of making all kinds of state–person interactions available through "Diia". This project was developed in partnership with the US and is set to be shared with other countries, as expressed by USAID Administrator Samantha Power at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos.