Speech of the Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek at the International Conference Internet in State Administration and Local Governments on 2.4. 2007

Dear ladies, dear gentlemen,

two things are rather strange in my today's speech. First, it is a speech rather for those people outside, not for you in the auditorium; because you are those who are ready to cooperate on the introduction of the Internet in the state administration and local governments and you are already doing it. Second, the word revolution is frequently mentioned in my today's speech, which is unusual in case of liberally-conservative politician. But in this case, in case of the Internet it is the right word, I think.
The Internet has brought a revolution. It opened new markets, it gave people new possibilities of communication and it meant also a birth of new way of thinking. Surprisingly, throughout the time it enables people to earn money, seek for information and create values; just few things have been changed in the relationships of the public administration to citizens and firms.
Bureaucracy has not decreased, on the contrary. Ladies and gentlemen, we need a new revolution. We have already the technology. We need to learn the state administration a new philosophy; to switch over from the regime office – citizen, from the off-line regime, to the permanent on-line regime.
Certainly, also the public administration uses computers including the Internet nowadays. The problem is that we still have two networks here, two Internets; the first one for citizens and firms and the second one for offices. In spite of faint attempts to interconnect these two worlds there is the Chinese Wall between them. In such a case even the most advanced technology cannot help.
If you introduce the Internet and computers in an existing office, it will not happen anything else that a bureaucrat will receive a new weapon instead of glazed cotton sleeves; a weapon, with help of which he would be able to bother people even more.
Therefore I am speaking about a change of philosophy. We must adapt performance of the public administration to the thinking of the Internet, and not to transfer thinking of officials to the Internet. The Czech Republic stands out in comparison with other member states of the European Union just because of ability of the state administration to exercise people. According to experts´ estimates, citizens must supply the state administration with some hundred million of confirmations, requests and other documents per year. About half of those administrative acts are unnecessary. A citizen or an entrepreneur needs information or confirmation just because of necessity to transfer it to another office.
The price for it is about 4 million hours yearly for officers and about one hundred million hours yearly for citizens. If we convert it to the average salary it is about 10 billion crowns, 10 billion crowns are wasted. And I calculated only costs of unnecessary transactions, which result from that officials´ off-line philosophy of the Chinese Wall. It is complicated to quantify asset that would occur thanks to more effectiveness and speed in case of introduction of electronic communication. Let alone the fact that the state administration would be far friendlier. If you think that the situation is improving, I must say you are mistaken. In 2004 the Czech Republic was on the 19th place as to the quality and accessibility of electronic services in the EU. Last year the result was worse by two places. It is not an economic issue. Luxembourg with the highest GNP per capita is even behind us while Estonia is far ahead of us.
There is high time to start the revolution. You ask whether the government is prepared for it. I answer modestly: it is. It is because we have been working on that revolution for years in the opposition together with independent experts.
All changes, which occurred in the sphere of the e-Government, were more or less formal changes, changes that have not showed positive results for people. Now, two months after the vote of confidence of the government, we are coming with partial but important reform; reform, whose benefits will people feel immediately.
I was honoured to have an opportunity to collect a copy of an entry in the Land Register, in the city district Prague 13, which was produced by the system CZECH POINT. The entire name is the Czech Handing Verifying Information National Terminal. The purpose of the project is to create networks of contact places, where citizens will be able to collect all data, copies of entries, which are in central public registers and which concern his/her person, possession and rights; at the only one spot, in a minute. In one year people will be able to verify documents, papers and signatures and to convert documents to the electronic form at two thousand spots at least. They will also be able to gain information on the course of proceedings that concern them.
However, it is not that revolution. This is the first step. After the approval of the Act on e-Government, which is prepared now, citizens will be able to have their CZECH POINTS at home on their computers connected to the Internet. Then it will be possible to manage these matters from their homes. But this is not the revolution either. It is the second step. Then there must be the third step taken: permanent metamorphosis of the public administration in the spirit of "on-line philosophy". I am sure we will be witnesses of an interactive process, similar to that, which was caused by the Internet itself, process of permanent improvement of information channels and processes.
The revolution really does not consist only in organizational and technological changes. In spite of the fact they are also very significant. More significant matter is that from a closed system of Chinese Wall we create an open one.
We are at the start of the development of an information system of a new generation; system, which will significantly strengthen real participation of citizens in public administration activities; thus it will become a great challenge for it. In the connection with merge of the Ministry of Informatics and the Ministry of Interior, I would like to emphasize that it is not important which institution will introduce the strategy of the e-Government development. It will be an open system and the most important thing for the government is to have a will to open it. This government is not afraid of that openness. I regard this fight against unnecessary bureaucratic burden as one of my personal priorities. Implementation of electronic systems in the public administration is a step to their privatization, in fact. It is a start of the process, when an office looses its monopoly and the "famous" round stamp. The revolution, which we start now, brings an element of equality and competitiveness into the relation citizen-office. It fits in our philosophy of removing barriers in all spheres of economy and society.
And we are starting to remove them immediately. As Bill Gates has said about the Internet: "You either move quickly or you will not survive! It is an opposite of the rule "speed kills you". And I tell you that we are extremely fast!