PILOT: Crowdsourced language preservation, Japan's digital birthday, and Barcelona takes the lead on AI Governance
In a week of conversations about Digital Government at the UN General Assembly, countries in Europe and Asia have been showing they can walk the walk by innovating at home...
Countries across Europe and Asia have emerged as leaders in GovTech and Digital Government Solutions. Scarcely are examples of strong digital government mentioned without reference to Estonia’s X-Road and Singapore’s GovTech Agency, or digital democracy and citizen participation discussed without turning to vTaiwan and g0v.
Our own formative engagements with GovTech came in an Asian context, researching Master’s theses on digital government whilst studying in China. Writing on Beijing’s 12345 hotline, which provides citizen services to more than 20 million people living in China’s capital, and the ways in which Hangzhou’s smart city platform supports its own 10 million strong population, our research was an exposure to digital government at an enormous scale.
This newsletter is designed to not just illustrate well-known innovations as they happen, but also to draw upon some lesser known examples that are just as pronounced. Alongside stories of Estonia and Singapore, in producing the pilot of this newsletter we discovered Pakistan’s flood relief platform, Japan’s one year anniversary of its digital ministry, and countries from Albania to the UAE taking part in discussions about digital cooperation at the UN General Assembly.
Ultimately, we hope to capture the diversity of thought and solutions when it comes to digital government in Eurasia, highlighting the potential we see for collective progress. As anyone who has followed discussions on the role of Chinese technology companies in European Markets, or standards setting at the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, will know, sometimes it is not immediately clear how countries across the two continents can learn from each other in digital government innovation.
We are writing not with these headlines, however, but with Europe and Asia’s collaborative spirit in mind. When it comes to mini- and multilateral digital government groups, these two continents are highly present in almost all of them. 7 out of 10 countries participating in Digital Nations are from Europe and Asia, as are 11 of the 17 teams involved in the CivTech Alliance. GovStack, an attempt at developing open-source digital government, is spearheaded by the governments of Germany and Estonia (along with the ITU and the Digital Impact Alliance).
We want to further these collaborative attempts to produce better digital services; connect the unconnected; and improve the accountability, transparency and efficiency of governments. Alongside our recap of emerging GovTech trends and news stories, we will provide our own op-eds, columns and commentary. We encourage external submissions, broader feedback, and any further engagement with the newsletter, and look forward to exploring the frontiers of government innovation together.
Without further ado, here are the main developments from GovTech news in Europe and Asia this week:
Estonia crowdsources speech data for the preservation of the Estonian Language
Japan marks its Digital Agency’s 1 year birthday with a recap of its progress so far
Also check out what’s new in regulation, our GovTech news in brief, the theory behind the practice, and upcoming GovTech events.
Estonia crowdsources speech data to preserve Estonian language - GovInsider, Yogesh Hirdaramani
On the back of similar work in Singapore and New Zealand, one of Europe’s leading lights in digital government innovation is giving its citizens a voice in language archiving writes GovInsider’s Yogesh Hirdaramani.
The “Donate Your Speech” campaign aims to preserve the Estonian language and develop language technologies to bolster the delivery of public services for Estonian speakers.
The database will contain 4,000 hours of spoken language, which can then be used to create services based on speech technology. This can be used to record meetings, convert interviews into written form and generate automatic subtitles.
This platform will build on Bürokratt — the “Siri of Public Services” — a voice-activated AI virtual assistant which supports citizens in everything from renewing a passport to applying for benefits.
Japan marks its Digital Agency’s 1 year birthday with a recap of its progress so far (in Japanese) - Japanese Digital Agency
With September 1st having marked one year since the establishment of Japan’s Digital Agency, the government has released a series of articles reflected on its achievements so far.
The Digital Agency has organised its agenda along three focus areas: providing user-friendly digital services; promoting a growth strategy by developing a data infrastructure; ensuring that digital infrastructure is safe, secure, and robust.
One of the highlights of the agency’s first year has been forming a Digital Temporary Administrative Investigation Committee, which has so far reviewed approximately 4,000 articles of digital regulation.
Japan has also set up a government procurement cloud which can be used commonly across central and local governments. This has already been rolled out on the websites of more than 20 local governments.
Barcelona takes the lead on AI Governance Principles - The Gov Lab, Sara Marcucci et al.
Barcelona today serves as a model of a city that has developed its own set of AI principles to guide the responsible development and use of AI and data by local administration.
The city's AI Strategy is oriented towards improving public knowledge about the use of algorithms by public services and redistributing among citizens the economic and social value produced by their data.
The strategy requires local AI projects to uphold seven governing principles spanning data privacy to democratic control.
The AI strategy underscores the importance of active collaboration and dialogue with non-governmental and grassroots organizations when designing community principles, which need to be regularly evaluated through a participatory approach to evaluate the success of guidelines.
GovTech News in Brief
Singapore Government Agency launches a whole-of-government robotic automation system - GovInsider, Liew Ming En
Singapore’s government plans to implement a new cloud-native automation software, allowing agencies to access, collaborate and implement robotic process automation solutions.
XPeng’s automated vehicle test in Guangzhou offers a challenge to Tesla in smart urban mobility - TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan
Chinese smart electric vehicle startup XPeng launched its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that automates certain driving functions in urban environments. Its tech promises to do compete with Tesla’s ADAS.
How Estonia’s Digital Evolution could set it up for the metaverse - Digiday, Alexander Lee
Estonia’s digital identity provides it with an alternative path for legitimacy beyond existence as a physical nation. Carmen Raal, a digital transformation advisor overseeing the development of e-Estonia, argues that there will be an eventual move to secure all data in e-Estonia using blockchain technology.
Making a tax system sustainable: a case study of the UK’s HMRC - PUBLIC, Zixuan Fu
This case study from PUBLIC discusses the opportunity that ‘green customs’ provides for the UK government, and how monitoring supply chains and sustainability is increasingly the responsibility of digital government.
BCG’s Centre for Public Impact (CPI) explores India’s GovTech trends - Centre for Public Impact, Smita Jha
CPI highlights 2 trends that are driving progress across India's public and social sectors: 1. The creation of Digital Public Goods; 2. Collaborations across the public, social, and private sectors to address challenges like equitable healthcare access and securing a renewable energy future for India.
UK Government Digital Service on how to migrate to Google Analytics 4 - GOV.UK, Daisy Wain
Google Analytics is the UK Government Digital Service’s primary source of performance data. With significant changes coming to the platform, GDS’s Lead Performance Analyst Daisy Wain discusses what the future of performance tracking might look like within the organisation.
Pakistan’s government announces 10 broadband projects worth Rs 21 billion - Ministry of IT & Telecom
The projects include building out high-speed mobile broadband on national highways and in digitally underdeveloped areas. They aim to increase the nation’s social equity, provide employment opportunities in rural areas, and strengthen citizens’ digital literacy.
Singapore’s Tuas Port will be the world’s largest fully automated port when completed in 20 years - CNA, Ang Hwee Min
10 years after the project was announced, Phase 1 of Singapore’s fully automated port has now been completed. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shared an update in his recent National Day speech.
What’s New in Regulation?
OECD publishes a new systematic framework to measure the innovative capacity of governments. - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation
The Framework guides governments to move away from innovation as a sporadic activity to systemically embedding innovation at the heart of policymaking and public administration.
The new competency framework promotes trustworthy, inclusive and human rights-centric AI implementation, and provides the foundations for future local and global capacity-building operations.
The Theory Behind the Practice
The road to smarter transportation networks is paved with data - GovInsider, Yugabyte
This piece explores how data (particularly real-time data) can help governments to make transportation networks better and considers key challenges that stand in their way.
Why successful whole-of-government digitalisation ought to involve international collaboration - GovStack
GovStack’s interview with Ireland’s Head of Digital Services Tony Shannon talks about how digital services can work best in the commons, where governments, citizens and market players alike can collaborate on improving people’s lives.
5 Reasons why GovTech is more important than ever in 2022 - The GovTech Summit
The GovTech Summit team looks towards digital government for driving economic recovery, optimizing our energy, enabling a stronger state in the face of threats, empowering public servants, and restoring trust in public institutions.
Upcoming GovTech Events
An event exclusively for Public Servants and Policymakers, aPolitical’s workshop aims at teachers those in government how to present, track and report data efficiently.
How can organizations learn from first nations?
An interactive series of webinars that brings together practitioners, academics, and thinkers to explore 4 themes: rebuilding trust in government, enabling social change through stories, lessons for organizations from First Nations, and building learning systems in government.
GovInsider’s flagship conference is happening this year in Malaysia, hosting more than 200 public sector decision makers to discuss government innovation. Includes a session on “Digital Strategy at the Core of Government”.
Taiwan Zero 10th Anniversary Birthday Party
A celebration of g0v’s 10th birthday featuring a hackathon, keynote speeches and panels discussing the future of technology and governance.