WSIS 2019: Director General of the Foreign Economic Policy and Development Cooperation Department, MFA participated at the High Level Policy Session on Bridging Digital Divides

On 9 April, the Director General Mr. Jüri Seilenthal shared Estonia`s experience in overcoming the digital divide. Estonia, even being digitally advanced, have also had to work hard on bridging the gaps. Even though there is no problem with illiteracy, the generational gap has been quite difficult to bridge. One of the solutions Estonia has been implementing is keeping always the traditional ways for interacting with the government alive while developing digital services. At the same time also incentivizing new solutions. Extremely important has been the government-citizen relation in that process and the  role of private sector as the main developer. He also stressed the special role of local interlocutors. Mr. Seilenthal further explained how Estonia`s experience could be scaled up on the global level. Sharing its experience in building up a digital society is one of  Estonia`s development cooperation priorities. Also, as an EU member, Estonia has worked very strongly for the concept of D4D, ie digital for development.