This chapter sets out the context for digital government in Estonia and Finland. It outlines some of the traits that are common to the two countries: high levels of connectivity, important domestic information and communication technology sectors, and sound innovation policy frameworks. It also analyses important variations, such as the different policy developments over the past decades, which have an impact on today’s state of digital government in both countries.

This chapter analyses the priorities and strategies for digital government set by Estonia and Finland. It uses responses to an OECD survey and other information sources to draw conclusions about the coherence of digital government across the large public sectors in each country. Governance and leadership issues are closely related to digital government coherence and performance. The choices each government has made for government IT co-ordination are therefore compared in light of their effectiveness to address national policy priorities. This also includes a look at co-ordination with local levels of government which, especially in Finland, have important policy competencies in areas such as education and healthcare. The chapter concludes with an assessment of practices, issues and challenges for digital government prioritisation and co-ordination.

This chapter examines the ways in which the governments of Estonia and Finland manage the implementation of cross-cutting government IT projects. A particular focus is set on the “business case” approach, which leading OECD countries have adopted as a critical instrument to review, monitor and assess the impact of digital government projects, especially those with high stakes and high risks attached. This chapter highlights co-operation with non-government stakeholders, as well as the availability of adequate skills across the public administration. Skills gaps pose important challenges to digital government in both countries – as in most OECD countries – although they take different forms in Estonia and Finland, which in turn requires different approaches to address them. The chapter concludes with an assessment of implementation issues.

Estonia and Finland have developed close partnerships and co-operation on information and communication technology policies. The two governments now share the ambition to take this co-operation further and expand the availability of interoperable digital public services, data exchanges and infrastructures across the border. This chapter identifies customer-facing transactions as well as background exchanges in four high-impact policy areas: taxation, healthcare, social affairs and private sector development. It discusses how political intentions can be converted into tangible implementation, including the establishment of shared governance, co-ordination and management mechanisms. The roadmap proposed in this chapter aims to support exploring, piloting and implementing digital cross-border services and data exchanges.