Hungary’s digital government has grown increasingly popular over the last decade or so, with more and more citizens choosing to interact with their government through the Internet instead of in person.

However, as demand for services increases, so does the pressure on Hungary’s digital government to deliver its services effectively and efficiently – not an easy feat when faced with limited resources. 

These issues are hindering citizens’ ability to access the services they need when they need them, which could potentially lead to the deterioration of people’s confidence in their government and the general mistrust of their government.

Hungary outperforms in digital infrastructure

The country performs better than its regional peers regarding digital infrastructure – both broadband and mobile – and digital businesses.

According to the DESI report, it remains a leader in broadband connectivity, as 22% of households subscribed to such a service in 2021 (compared with 7.6% in the EU.)

Hungary’s internet penetration rate stood at 89% of the total population at the beginning of 2022.

Kepio’s analysis indicates that internet users in Hungary increased by 3.2% between 2021 and 2022.

Additionally, the country scores above the EU average on Overall fixed broadband take-up, 5G, and Fixed very high capacity network coverage. 

This is also important in light of the Digital Decade target to achieve 100% coverage of all households of gigabit networks by 2030.

Regarding digital policies, the National Digitalisation Strategy 2021-2030 provides the strategic policy framework for this period. 

Aiming to develop the economy, innovation, education, and public administration, the strategy is based on four pillars:

• Digital economy –It aims to increase the digital reach and use of SMEs, create support programs for the ICT industry and utilise data assets of the government for economic purposes.
• Digital skills — It aims to create programs for digital competency, support the learning of digital skills in education and increase the number and capacity of IT professionals.
• Digital infrastructure — It aims to develop and expand the digital infrastructure for educational institutions, of the National Telecommunication Backbone Network, and the expansion of research networks and public institutions.
• Digital state — It aims to digitally develop the central and local public administration with customer-centric services, user-friendly systems and customer and the development of smart towns

As you can see, this National Strategy groups, clarifies and complements the measures in various other strategic documents. 

Hungary has the very ambitious and challenging aim of becoming among the 10 leading EU economies in terms of digitalisation by 2030.

Mixed signals regarding public services 

Hungary ranks 22nd out of the 27 EU States in the DESI 2022 report. 

The progress is not bad, as it has moved in line with the rest of the EU, but there is still room for development.

There has been substantial progress on the demand side of e-government, with 81% of internet users engaging with public administration online in 2021. 

For comparison, only 64% of the citizens engaged with the government through digital means in 2019.

Additionally, this is far better than the EU average of 65% in 2021.

However, the quality of the services provided by the government for citizens and businesses remained relatively low.

On the Human capital index, Hungary lags behind too.

Only 49% of individuals have (at least) basic digital skills, which is below the EU average of 54%. 

Achieving flexibility and resilience

At the end of 2021, Hungary offered more than 3000 online public services, almost twice as many as a year earlier.

However, the country still has a long way to go.

It needs to pay close attention to increasing the number of ICT specialists and the digital skills of its citizens. 

And while there has been significant progress in digital technologies used, most Hungarian enterprises do not exploit the opportunities offered.

That’s why, regarding advanced technologies, Hungary needs to invest more in AI, big data and the cloud. 

On the other hand, the government requires security and control over sensible data as a prerequisite. 

Besides technology neutrality and IT security requirements, it must encourage development based on open-source software.

Source:

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/inline-files/DPA_Factsheets_2021_Hungary_vFinal.pdf

https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Data/Country-Information/id/75-Hungary

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi-hungary