Ministry of information society and administration

Skopje, March 23rd, 2022

Today, Deputy Minister of Information Society and Administration, Aleksandar Bajdevski, participated in the panel discussion on municipal digitalization within the conference "EU for Municipalities". Apart from Bajdevski, Steffen Hudolin, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, Goran Milevski, Minister of Local Self-Government, Bilal Kasami, Mayor of Tetovo and Alin-Adrian Nica, President of Timiş County Council, Romania, also took part in the panel discussion.

Bajdevski spoke about the achievements in the field of digitalization, focusing on current projects in the ministry, such as the National Portal for Electronic Services, the Interoperability Platform and the Central Population Register.

He also informed that the project "IPA 2017: Enhancing eGovernment" is underway, which provides development of 135 new electronic services for citizens and companies, and for which a tool for digitization of registers has already been developed thereof.

„Во моментот во развој се 43 услуги и истите се очекува да се публикуваат на порталот во периодот јуни-септември 2022. Во рамки на овој проект исто така, се развива Регистар на регистри, во кој ќе се чуваат податоци за регистрите на сите државни институции, независно од тоа дали се дигитализирани или не. Се набавува и опрема за 11 комуникациски клиенти со кои на платформата за интероперабилност ќе се поврзат 11 нови институции.”, истакна Бајдевски.

"Currently, 43 services are under development and are expected to be published on the portal in the period June-September 2022. Within this project, a Register of registers is also under development, and the same will store data from the registers of all state institutions, regardless if they are digitized or not. Equipment is also being procured for 11 communication clients, which will connect 11 new institutions on the interoperability platform", pointed out Bajdevski.

The Deputy Minister also referred to the importance of digitalization in the local self-government, but also its importance for the citizens.

"The process of municipal service digitalization is complex, due to the competencies of all of us, the stakeholders in the process, and above all the Ministry of Local Self-Government, the municipalities and Association of the Units of Local Self Government (ZELS). We, as a ministry, believe that the portal, the population register, the interoperability platform, systems that have already been developed and are maintained by MISA should be used for the services of the Local Self-Government Units. Thus, on the one hand, there will be economical and efficient operation, and on the other hand, the portal enables unification of all services, regardless of which municipality they are delivered from, and the citizens access the services from one place, without knowing if they receive them from the central or the local government, "he added.

At the end of his speech, he expressed hope that in the forthcoming period, the Local Self-Government Units, the Ministry of Local Self-Government and the Association of the Units of Local Self-Government (ZELS) will accelerate the process of municipal digitalization, and the Ministry of Information Society and Administration with its expertise and systems, within the frames of its competencies, is here to support the overall process.