Denmark leads the 2020 ranking of the 193 UN Member states in terms of digital government, followed by The Republic of Korea and Estonia, completing the top three. From being in the 9th position in 2016, Denmark eventually had a massive development that led to it becoming the number 1 in the world for digital public services.

Denmark: An innovative leader in e-government

The first movement in Denmark that is considered a huge step in digital public services was the CPR number (personal identification number). Back in 1968, this register was established by combining information from all the municipal civil records into one. In the following 29 years, all IT systems were updated for the last digit number. Soon after a new infrastructure was launched that included a cross-government identity verification named ‘EasyID’, which makes it simple for the citizens to access a wide range of services online. Lars Thuesen, the Danish ambassador to the UK, stated that the private sector banks in Denmark co-operated in launching this initiative, which now uses the same infrastructure for e-banking.

From April 2006-2007, Denmark topped the Networked Readiness Index of the Global Information Technology. Later in October 2007, a new national SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture)

infrastructure was launched by the Danish Ministry of Science. This infrastructure was the first in the world to enable SOA capabilities, making them accessible to businesses of all sizes, offering a comprehensive legal and technical framework.

In 2011, there was a significant channel shift, thus “Digital Post” for citizens and businesses was made mandatory. During 2011, NemID (EasyID) was used 310 million times, and 79 % of this usage was by the adult population to access services in both the public and private sectors, and notably for Internet banking. 

On the way towards 2015, digitisation and welfare technology were used wisely to modernise and streamline the major areas of welfare. Danes generally have a high degree of trust in each other and the private and public sectors. In the OECD’s report ‘How’s Life 2015’, Denmark takes first place to trust other people. Moreover, paper forms were phased out by providing citizens with online self-service options. Furthermore, all citizens had a digital post box, in which they received all letters from public authorities.

From 2015 until 2020, the strategies used by the government were successful due to the eGovernment national initiatives. Some of the elements that Denmark is strategically delivering on E-Government are listed below:

Digital Signatures

• Using only one signal digital key, the citizens can access various public and private services. Using their digital signature (user ID and password), Danish can easily access their online banking, government services, and an increasing amount of private services. NemID now has over 70% of the Danish population connecting to digital services safely and securely due to the collaboration between the public and private sectors. Presently, approximately 4.7 million Danish citizens use NemID, and over 55 million transactions take place every month. ”NemID’’ has enveloped a new solution known as MitID.

 Transparency

• The Agency for Digitisation, responsible for developing the government’s digital policy and implementing digital services in the public sector, is actively connected to citizens with the implications of the common public sector Digital Strategy implications. There are three strategic objectives. Starting with the first one, implement public digital services that are easy to use and of high quality, second is to continue to implement digital services that provide a solid framework for growth and the third is about keeping trust and security at the centre of developing new digital solutions.  

Cross-Border Mobility

• Cross-Border Mobility indicates how well EU citizens and businesses can access online services while they are in another EU country. E-Passport provides access to Danish services while living outside Denmark.

Key Enablers

• There are several key enablers that indicate the health of eGovernment such as Identification (eID), Electronic Documents (eDocuments), Authoritative Sources, and Digital Post.

In conclusion, the strength of the governance model is the cyclical evaluation and it is strengthened with each e-Government strategy. By conditioning the cohesiveness with the public and private sector in the development of new technologies, Denmark can adopt new technologies and rapidly integrate them into digital solutions for its citizens.

Sources 

https://publicadministration.un.org/en/Research/UN-e-Government-Surveys

“The Civil Registration System in Denmark: 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND”. Archived from the original on 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2012-12-01.

https://www.governmentcomputing.com/back-office/news/denmark-made-top-e-government